Flora-Fauna

Ornithogalum lanceolatum Labill.

First published in Icon. Pl. Syr. 5: 11 (1812).

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, pp. 242–243, under Ornithogalum billardieri, Pl. LXXVII, 1; 1966)

Description

Synonym: Ornithogalum billardierei Mouterde, printed as O. billardieri in Mouterde’s account.

Life-form & habit: Bulbous perennial with a simple ovoid bulb, 1–3 cm in diameter, enclosed by whitish or greyish tunics. Flowering stem very short, under 5 cm.

Leaves: Four to eight, glabrous, broadly lanceolate, somewhat pointed and spreading over the ground.

Inflorescence & flowers: Dense corymb emerging among the leaves and becoming hemispherical. Bracts papery, weakly pointed, with a green or brown dorsal band ending below the tip; longer than the flower stalks and covering the lower half of the perianth. Perianth about 2 cm long. Tepals blunt, with a broad green dorsal band that stops short of the tip. Stamens about one-third as long as the perianth.

Fruit: Ovoid capsule.

Flowering and habitat

Phenology: February–June or July, depending on altitude and snowmelt.

Habitat & elevation: More or less waterlogged mountain soils near melting snow; rarely below 1,400 m.

Distribution

Lebanese distribution: Jabal Barouk, Dahr el Baidar, Jabal Kneisse, Kfar Selouan, Ain Saouair, Jabal Sannine, Yammoune–Aqoura, Khan Mogheir above Zahle, Hasroun, Ainata and the summit of Mount Hermon.

Syrian distribution: Above Zebdani, Jabal Qasyoun and Jabal Abou Ata.

Recorded locations: Sannine.

Native range: Lebanon-Syria, Palestine and Türkiye.

⚠️ Taxonomic note:

Kew places Mouterde’s O. billardierei under O. lanceolatum. Mouterde had separated the snow-associated, long-bracted plant under his new name and applied O. lanceolatum differently in his discussion of O. montanum. The description and localities here follow O. billardieri, the account linked by Kew’s current synonymy.