Flora-Fauna

Marrubium cuneatum Banks & Sol.

(First published in A. Russell, Nat. Hist. Aleppo, ed. 2, 2: 255; 1794. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 115; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Perennial, pluricaulous; stems erect, 30–80 cm, with a dense whitish appressed woolly indumentum, tomentose at the top with fascicled hairs.
• Leaves: Green, rugose, crenate, narrowly elliptic to oblong, canescent-tomentose, especially beneath.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Pseudoverticillasters small, lower ones distant. Bracts few, short. Calyx tomentose with fascicled hairs, with about 20 spreading teeth irregularly connate (normally 5 simple alternating with groups of 3 connate); aristiform portion absent or much reduced, c. 3 times shorter than tube. Corolla white, with very small limb.
• Phenology: Flowers April–August.
• Lebanese distribution: Mention of Qa‘a (uncertain record).
• Syrian distribution: Aleppo (Russell, Montbret, Aucher, Kotschy, Haussknecht, etc.), Hamidié, Abou Douhour, Hama, N of Jerablous; Anti-Lebanon: Ma‘loula; Hauran: Sanamein.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Palestine. (POWO)

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Closely related to Marrubium radiatum Delile ex Benth., which Boissier had treated as var. spinulosum of M. cuneatum. Mouterde separates them by leaf shape (narrow elliptic vs. broader obovate/suborbicular) and calyx morphology (irregularly connate teeth without a clear arista vs. more regular teeth ending in a distinct recurved arista).