Family |
Lamiaceae
Moluccella spinosa
L.
Moluccella spinosa L.
First published in Sp. Pl.: 587 (1753).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 141, Pl. LXVII nº 2; 1983)
Description
Life-form & habit: Annual herb, very glabrous, with erect, quadrangular stems 50–100 cm tall or more, simple or sparsely branched near the base.
Leaves: Petiolate, ovate, deeply incised-lobed; floral leaves exceeding the flower whorls.
Inflorescence & flowers: False whorls of 6–10 flowers. Bracts slender, awl-shaped, spiny and bent downward, shorter than the calyx tube. Calyx tube short, inversely conical, glandular-papillose; limb leathery, strongly oblique and two-lipped, with prominent, netted veins. Upper lip slightly longer, lanceolate, ending in a long spine; lower lip approximately semicircular to pentagonal, bearing seven unequal spines. Corolla white, projecting beyond the calyx.
Fruit: Nutlets three-angled, truncate at the summit, as described in Mouterde’s generic account.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Flowers June–July.
Habitat & elevation: Roadsides and waste ground, chiefly in the Mediterranean zone. Mouterde gives no numerical elevation range.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Between Tyr and Nabatiyé; Rmeilé, Saïda, Beyrouth, Antélias, Tamish, Tourza, ‘Antoura, Broummana, Deir-el-Qamar, Ehden and Baalbeck.
Native range: Algeria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sicilia, Spain, Tunisia, Türkiye.
Introduced into: Baleares.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
Distinguished from Moluccella laevis by its leathery, strongly two-lipped calyx with long spines and its corolla projecting beyond the calyx. In M. laevis, the calyx is broadly expanded and membranous, with five very short points, and exceeds the corolla.