Family |
Geraniaceae
Geranium crenophilum
Boiss.
Endemic to Lebanon
Geranium crenophilum Boiss.
(First published in Diagn. Pl. Orient., ser. 1, 8: 117 (1849); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CLXXXI nº 3; 1970)
• Life-form & habit : Perennial herb, 28–80 cm tall; rootstock more or less horizontal, not turnip-shaped, with thick, fleshy roots; stems prostrate to ascending, densely hispid, with long glandular hairs.
• Leaves : Basal leaves in a deciduous rosette; blades 1.6–7.2 × 2.1–8.7 cm, divided for about half to three quarters of their length, pilose with appressed eglandular and glandular hairs. Cauline leaves opposite, usually divided into 5–7 lobes, with lobes less acute than in G. asphodeloides.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Cymules usually overtopping the subtending leaf; peduncles and pedicels with patent to retrorse eglandular hairs and long glandular hairs; sepals 5.6–8.7 mm long, mucronate, with scarious margins and both eglandular and glandular hairs; petals rose-purple to purplish, entire, 9–15 × 5–9.4 mm, shortly clawed.
• Fruit : Fruit 20–26 mm long; mericarps 2.3–3 × 1.7–2.3 mm, brownish, with patent eglandular hairs and glandular hairs; rostrum 15.2–22.2 mm long, with narrowed apex 3.7–5.7 mm; seeds 2–2.3 × 1.5–1.7 mm.
• Phenology : Flowers from April to August according to Mouterde; Aedo et al. record flowering specimens from May to August.
• Habitat & elevation : Meadows, stream banks, irrigation-channel margins and areas near springs in mountain habitats, between 1450 and 1900 m according to Aedo et al.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from ‘Aïn Dara toward Tarchich, Bân, Basloukite, Hasroun, Dimane, Tannourine, ‘Aïn Dahab, the Cedars, Ehden, Khan Sannine, Jisr-el-Hajar, Laqlouq and Afqa. Aedo et al. confirmed Lebanese material from Dimane, Hasroun, Afqa, Ehden, Sannine and Khan Sannine.
• Native range : Lebanon.
• Diagnostic remarks : Lebanese endemic. Mouterde recorded G. crenophilum from Lebanon and also cited a Syrian locality, Bhamra, but Aedo et al. revised the group and showed that the Syrian specimen supporting that record, Haradjian 2748 from Bhamra, belongs to G. asphodeloides. They therefore restricted G. crenophilum to Lebanon. It differs from G. asphodeloides by its consistently long glandular hairs on stems, petioles and inflorescence; in G. asphodeloides, glandular hairs are variable, often absent or short and straight. It shares with G. asphodeloides a horizontal rootstock with thick fleshy roots and relatively broad petals, but its long glandular indumentum is diagnostic.