Flora-Fauna

Hypericum lanuginosum Lam.

(Encycl. 4: 171; 1797 – Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CLXXVIII nº 3; 1969)

• Life-form & habit: Perennial herb or small subshrub, 20–50 cm tall, forming dense clumps from a woody base. Stems erect or ascending, somewhat angular, densely covered with a soft greyish tomentum that gives the plant a characteristic woolly appearance.

• Leaves: Opposite, sessile or shortly petiolate, oblong to narrowly elliptic, 10–25 × 3–8 mm, densely lanate on both surfaces, margins entire, apex rounded or subacute. Glandular dots present but usually concealed by indumentum.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal, many-flowered, dichasial cymes. Flowers 10–15 mm in diameter, bright yellow, often tinged orange when dry. Sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate, densely tomentose, with entire or slightly glandular margins. Petals 5, oblong, about twice as long as sepals, with black punctiform glands near the margins. Stamens numerous, united at the base in three fascicles; styles 3, free.

• Fruit: Capsule ovoid, 5–7 mm long, finely pubescent, splitting into 3 valves; seeds cylindric, striate, brownish.

• Phenology: Flowers and fruits from May to August.

• Habitat & elevation: Rocky slopes, mountain scrub, and dry open woodland clearings, on limestone or sandstone soils, from 400 to 1 800 m.

• Lebanese distribution: Reported by Mouterde from Mount Lebanon (Dahr el-Baïdar, Barouk, Bcharré, Falougha) and the Anti-Lebanon; often associated with Quercus calliprinos and Sarcopoterium spinosum.

• Native range: Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Türkiye (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: A distinctive woolly Hypericum readily recognised by its dense grey indumentum and small yellow flowers. Sometimes confused with H. empetrifolium or H. thymifolium, but differs by its tomentose leaves and sepals. Considered an Eastern Mediterranean montane endemic centred in the Levant and southern Anatolia.