Family |
Lamiaceae
Melissa officinalis
L.
Melissa officinalis L.
(First published in Species Plantarum: 592, 1753; treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 172; 1983)
• Life-form & habit: Perennial herb, more or less hispid, 40–100 cm tall, green, aromatic (though Lebanese plants are notably less scented than European ones).
• Leaves: Ovate, often cordate at the base, obtuse or slightly acute, with serrate margins.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Axillary, subsessile cymes of 3–5 nodding flowers. Calyx hirsute, 5–6 mm at anthesis, enlarging to 7–8 mm in fruit; ribs prominent, venation reticulate, teeth very short. Corolla 8–10 mm, pale violet, tube included, scarcely exceeding the calyx.
• Fruits: Four small nutlets.
• Phenology: May–September.
• Habitat & elevation: Cultivated fields, roadsides, herbaceous and disturbed sites.
• Lebanese distribution: Jisr el-Bacha, Qabbélias, Ta‘naïl, Haouch el-Oummara, Zahlé, Hermel, Menges (Akkar).
• Syrian distribution: Damascus, Marj, Ghouta, Hamé, Qanaouat, Hama, Mount Cassius.
• Native range: Albania, Algeria, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corsica, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Crete, Lebanon–Syria, Morocco, North Caucasus, NW Balkan Peninsula, Palestine, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Uzbekistan (POWO).
• Introduced into: Widely naturalized in Europe and overseas, including North and South America, North Africa (Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores), New Zealand, Australia, and much of temperate Eurasia (POWO).
• Notes: Lebanese plants emit a much fainter scent than European ones, making them unsuitable for liqueur production. Mouterde interpreted this as a simple forma, possibly due to summer aridity.