Flora-Fauna

Noccaea microstyla (Boiss.) F.K.Mey.

First published in Feddes Repert. 84: 466 (1973).

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, pp. 94–95, under Thlaspi microstylum; Pl. XXXV, fig. 7)

Description

Synonym: Thlaspi microstylum Boiss., Diagn. Pl. Orient. 8: 38 (1849), the basionym accepted in Kew’s synonymy.

Life-form & habit: In Mouterde’s regional treatment, usually biennial, sometimes perennial, more or less tufted and many-stemmed, with ascending stems. Annual or poorly developed plants also occur in his broad concept.

Leaves: Basal leaves oval and long-petiolate; stem leaves longer and clasping the stem.

Inflorescence & flowers: Raceme dense in flower, becoming loose in fruit. Sepals lanceolate, green or purple, narrowly white-margined, about 1–1.5 mm long. Petals white or pinkish-white, about 3 mm long.

Fruit: Short pods borne on relatively long stalks, narrowed into a wedge at the base. Before maturity the apex has a broad shallow notch; this progressively narrows as the fruit becomes inversely triangular to heart-shaped, with a very narrow apical sinus and conspicuous reticulate venation. Style about 1 mm long.

Flowering and habitat

Flowering: April–June, depending on the locality and snow cover, according to Mouterde.

Habitat & elevation: Mountain soils, particularly humus accumulated at the foot of trees. Mouterde provides no numerical elevation range in this account.

Distribution

Lebanese localities in Mouterde: Cedars of Ma’asser; Jabal Barouk and its cedar forest; Jabal Kneissé; Zahlé pass; Neba el Assal near Faraya; Neba Sannine; Jourd Hadeth; Hasroun; Sir ed Dennié; between Ehden and Sir ed Dennié; Ehden and its forest; Les Cèdres; Qamou’a forest.

Syrian localities in Mouterde: Cedars of Slenfé; Nebi Younès pass; middle elevations of Mount Cassius.

Recorded locations: Sannine.

Distribution: Mouterde records Lebanon, the Alawite mountains, Amanus and Cassius. Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Bizim Bitkiler) also lists Noccaea microstyla in the Turkish flora. POWO currently gives Anti-Lebanon as its native-range summary and Lebanon-Syria in its distribution list. These differing source treatments are retained explicitly rather than presenting Anti-Lebanon as an undisputed limit.

⚠️ Taxonomic note:

Noccaea microstyla (Boiss.) F.K.Mey. is the accepted combination for Thlaspi microstylum Boiss. Mouterde’s distribution is substantially broader than POWO’s current Anti-Lebanon summary, and the Turkish national checklist independently includes N. microstyla. The regional description and distribution follow Mouterde. His treatment includes Carpoceras amani and Thlaspi syriacum and endorses Hedge’s identification of C. amani with T. microstylum. Modern sources do not uniformly adopt that broad circumscription, so the distribution discrepancy may involve differing species limits as well as incomplete distribution data. The Turkish checklist confirms its listing for Türkiye, but does not alone establish that every synonym or specimen in Mouterde’s treatment belongs to the same modern taxon.