Flora-Fauna

Petrosedum tenuifolium (Sm.) Grulich

(Preslia 56: 41; 1984 – Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CCLXVII nº 4; 1969)

• Life-form & habit: Small perennial chamaephyte forming loose mats or tufts. Stems ascending to decumbent, often reddish, 5–20 cm long, rooting at the base.

• Leaves: Alternate, densely crowded on sterile shoots, somewhat distant on flowering stems; cylindrical to narrowly terete, 5–15 mm long, 1–2 mm thick, acute at apex, green to glaucous, fleshy but not markedly turgid.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal cymes 3–7-flowered, slightly branched. Pedicels slender, up to 10 mm in fruit. Sepals free, narrowly triangular. Petals 5, yellow, linear-lanceolate, acute, c. 6 × 1.5 mm. Stamens 10; carpels 5, divergent at maturity, forming small follicles.

• Fruit: Follicles erect-divergent, 3–4 mm, each containing several minute, brown, smooth seeds.

• Phenology: Flowers and fruits from April to June.

• Habitat & elevation: Rocky limestone slopes, open phrygana, and cliffs, often in sunny exposures; from sea level up to about 1 500 m.

• Lebanese distribution: Recorded by Mouterde on calcareous rocks and dry slopes of Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, particularly between Zahlé, Dahr el Baïdar, and the western slopes of Jabal Sannine.

• Native range: Bulgaria, East Aegean Islands, Greece, Kriti, Lebanon–Syria, Portugal, Spain (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Formerly included in Sedum tenuifolium Sm.; transferred to Petrosedum by Grulich (1984) based on floral and seed morphology. It differs from P. rupestre by its narrower, less glaucous leaves and smaller, few-flowered inflorescences.