Family |
Boraginaceae
Onosma aucheriana
DC.
Onosma aucheriana DC.
≡ Onosma stellulata var. pallida (Boiss.) Boiss., Onosma pallida Boiss.
(First published in Prodr. 10: 60, 1846; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 72; 1983)
• Life-form & habit: Suffrutescent at base, multicaule, 15–40 cm tall; stems erect or ascending, covered with spreading, rather harsh setae inserted on stellate-pilose tubercles.
• Leaves: Erect, linear-oblong, often rather short, green to greyish, rough with spreading hairs.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal cymes, bifid (rarely simple), forming a corymbose cluster, elongating at fruiting. Calyx with narrow lanceolate, acute lobes, slightly accrescent. Corolla white, 2–3 times longer than the calyx. Nectary glabrous.
• Fruits: Nutlets triquetrous, abruptly apiculate, shining.
• Phenology: Flowers in April–May.
• Habitat & elevation: Wooded or shrubby places; mountain slopes.
• Lebanese distribution: Reported from Tripoli, ‘Aley, Bikfaya, Souq-el-Gharb (?), Hadtoun, Bhamdoun, Jisr-el-Hajar, Qarn ‘Aïtou, ‘Aqoura, forest of Ehden, Mount Sannine, Jabal Kneissé, Qobbayat, and the Hermon (road pass at Yanta).
• Native range: Turkey, Chios, Caucasus, Syria, Lebanon.
• Diagnostic remarks: This species appears little variable, always with white (not yellow) corollas, differing from the true Onosma stellulata Waldst. & Kit. to which Boissier had at first related it. Taxonomic delimitation within the group (O. roussaei, O. aucheriana, O. rascheyana) remains unsettled