Family |
Solanaceae
Hyoscyamus aureus
L.
Hyoscyamus aureus L.
(First published in Sp. Pl.: 180; 1753. Treated in Nouv. Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 202, Pl. XCVIII nº 1; 1984)
• Life-form & habit: Perennial, covered with spreading viscous pubescence; stems prostrate or ascending, 25 – 85 cm tall, strongly hispid and much-branched.
• Leaves: Petiolate, cordate-ovate to orbicular, with triangular toothed lobes; margins dentate to shallowly lobed; both surfaces viscid-hairy.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers shortly pedunculate, arranged in elongate, leafy, one-sided racemes; bracts triangular-ovate or oblong, dentate. Calyx very hispid, 1 – 2 cm long, with triangular lobes; corolla bright yellow with a violet-purple throat, zygomorphic, the upper segment smaller than the others; stamens and style exserted.
• Fruit: Capsule ovoid, enclosed within the persistent calyx.
• Phenology: Flowers February – July.
• Habitat & elevation: Rubble, old walls, and rocky ground from the coastal plain to lower mountain zones.
• Lebanese distribution: Saïda, Beirut, Nahr el-Kelb, Jounieh, Tripoli, Choueifat, Broummana, Bikfaya, Hasroun, Kérak near Zahlé, Baalbeck, Rachaya.
• Native range: Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey (POWO).
• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: A well-defined Levantine–Aegean species readily identified by its golden-yellow corolla with a violet throat and dense viscid indumentum. It differs from H. albus by the corolla coloration and from H. reticulatus by the absence of purple veining. Often associated with archaeological ruins and disturbed limestone sites throughout the eastern Mediterranean.