Flora-Fauna

Geranium libanoticum Schenk

(First published in Pl. Spec. Schubert: 39 (1840); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CLXXX nº 3; 1970)

• Life-form & habit : Perennial herb, pubescent, with a simple stem bearing one pair of leaves around the middle; unlike Geranium tuberosum, it lacks a radical tuber.

• Leaves : Radical leaves absent at anthesis; middle of the stem with one opposite pair of rather long-petiolate leaves, as large as the radical leaves of G. tuberosum; leaves 5-partite, divided into cuneate lobes, themselves cut into linear, slightly acute segments.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Peduncles arranged in dichotomies, each peduncle one-flowered; sepals lanceolate, briefly aristate and canescent; petals obcordate, purple-violet, twice as long as the sepals.

• Fruit : Not described separately by Mouterde.

• Phenology : Flowers from April to May.

• Habitat & elevation : Mountain fields, recorded in the middle mountain belt.

• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from the Cedars, including the original collection by Schubert, Erdl and Roth, from near the Cedars, Faraya and the Cedars of Ma‘asser. Mouterde notes that it is certainly present in other collections under the name Geranium tuberosum.

• Native range : Lebanon-Syria, Türkiye.

• Diagnostic remarks : Mouterde treated Geranium libanoticum Schenk, 1840, as distinct from G. libanoticum Boiss. & C.I.Blanche, 1867, the latter now treated as Geranium libani P.H.Davis. He considered G. libanoticum Schenk very close in habit to G. tuberosum, with which Boissier had united it, but separated it following Davis by decisive characters, especially the absence of a radical tuber, the absence of radical leaves at anthesis, and the presence of a single opposite pair of large, long-petiolate cauline leaves at mid-stem. POWO currently accepts Geranium libanoticum Schenk and gives the native range as Lebanon-Syria and Türkiye. (powo.science.kew.org)