Flora-Fauna

Pilosella bauhini (Schult.) Arv.-Touv.

≡ Hieracium bauhinii Schult. (syn., POWO)
(First published in Bull. Soc. Dauphin. Échange Pl. 7: 280; 1880. Treated in Nouv. Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 450, Pl. CCXXXV nº 4; 1984, as Hieracium bauhinii Schult.)

• Life-form & habit: Perennial herb with creeping stolons; stems 20 – 50 cm tall, erect, sparsely hairy and often reddish at the base.

• Leaves: Basal leaves forming a rosette, oblong-spathulate, 3 – 8 cm long, obtuse, usually entire or slightly denticulate, green above and pale-tomentose beneath; cauline leaves few, smaller, sessile, and progressively narrower upward.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula solitary or few in a lax corymb; involucral bracts blackish-green, covered with stiff simple and glandular hairs. Ligules bright yellow, truncate at apex with small teeth.

• Fruit: Achenes dark brown, 1.5 – 2 mm long, ribbed; pappus white to yellowish, soft.

• Phenology: Flowers May – August.

• Habitat & elevation: Dry meadows, rocky slopes, forest clearings, and subalpine pastures, from mid- to high elevations (1 200 – 2 800 m).

• Lebanese distribution: Qornet es-Saouda, Makmel, Bcharré, Hasroun, Ehden, and other high-mountain localities of Mount Lebanon (rare).

• Native range: Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Netherlands, North Caucasus, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Peninsula, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe, Ukraine.

• Introduced into: Great Britain (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Previously included in Hieracium, this species is now placed in Pilosella following modern treatments separating the stoloniferous taxa. Lebanese populations, first cited by Mouterde, are scarce and localized in subalpine grasslands of Mount Lebanon, representing the southernmost occurrences of this widespread Eurasian complex.