Family |
Orobanchaceae
Orobanche camptolepis
Boiss. & Reut.
Orobanche camptolepis Boiss. & Reut.
First published in P.E.Boissier, Fl. Orient. 4: 515 (1879).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, pp. 279–280 and 282, Pl. CXLII, 1–2; 1983)
Description
Synonyms: Orobanche hermonis Mouterde, included by Kew within O. camptolepis.
Life-form & habit: In Mouterde’s O. camptolepis account, a perennial parasitic herb with reddish stems 5–15 cm tall, not swollen at the base. His separately described O. hermonis is a papillose perennial, 20–50 cm tall, with a slightly thickened stem.
Leaves: O. camptolepis has dark, ovate-oblong, incurved, glandular-hairy scales along the stem below the spike. In O. hermonis, scales are dense at the base and more scattered above.
Inflorescence & flowers: O. camptolepis has a cylindrical spike 3–10 cm long, often longer than the rest of the plant. Bracts oval, slightly curved, brown tinged with violet, 8–10 mm, shortly glandular-hairy. Calyx only slightly longer, with two brown-violet bifid segments. Corolla erect and tubular, pale below and pink-violet above, scarcely widened at the tip, with short wavy, unfringed lobes. Stamens inserted near the middle of the tube; anthers white and without appendages; stigma reddish and two-lobed. In O. hermonis, the dense spike is 5–15 cm; bracts and bifid sepals papillose; corolla 10–15 mm, amethyst-violet, slightly curved, moderately glandular outside, with a shortly two-lobed toothed upper lip and three-lobed lower lip whose middle lobe is longer. Stamens are inserted near the corolla base; filaments glabrous; stigma yellow, becoming black when dry.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: June–August in O. camptolepis; September in Mouterde’s O. hermonis account.
Habitat & elevation: O. camptolepis is abundant in mountains, particularly doline bottoms, on Polygonum cedrorum; very scattered elsewhere on P. equisetiforme or P. maritimum. Mouterde’s O. hermonis was found near the Hermon summit; Cousinia hermonis and Cirsium lappaceum were suggested as probable hosts, without confirmation.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Tyr, Andket, near Faraya, near Kfar Selouane, the higher parts of Jabal Kneisse and Jabal Barouk, and Hermon. Mouterde’s O. hermonis record is specifically near the Hermon summit on Lebanese territory.
Syrian distribution: Birket el Foukhta and north of Qneitra.
Recorded locations: Sannine.
Native range: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
Kew includes O. hermonis within O. camptolepis, while Mouterde describes the two separately. Their historical morphological and ecological differences are distinguished above. Mouterde’s regional endemism statement for O. hermonis does not apply to the wider currently accepted O. camptolepis.