Family |
Plumbaginaceae
Plumbago europaea
L.
Plumbago europaea L.
(First published in Sp. Pl. 1: 151; 1753. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 369; 1983)
• Life-form & habit: Ascending perennial, 30–120 cm, very branched; branchlets slender, long, angled.
• Leaves: Lower leaves obovate, lowest attenuate into a petiole; middle leaves auriculate-amplexicaul; upper and branchlet leaves narrowly lanceolate to linear, shortly auriculate.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers in terminal spikes, at first subcapitate, later more lax. Bracts oblong, acute, glabrous or glandular, not reaching mid-calyx. Calyx cylindrical, covered with stipitate glands, often biseriate; teeth short, straight. Corolla dirty pink to violaceous, 1–2 times as long as calyx tube; lobes obovate, obtuse.
• Phenology: Flowers June–November.
• Habitat & elevation: Road margins, bushes, rocky habitats; frequent.
• Lebanese distribution: Saïda, Beirut, Antélias, Jounié, Nahr el-Kelb, Nahr Ibrahim, Tripoli, ‘Abey, Zahlé.
• Syrian distribution: Baalbeck; Anti-Lebanon — Bloudane, Houreiré; Idlib; Damascus — ‘Adra, Sahl es-Sahra. Latakia — Jabal Cassius .
• Native range: Algeria, Canary Islands, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey. (POWO)
⚠️ Taxonomic note: Characterized by its stipitate-glandular calyces and pink to violaceous corollas; frequently confused with other Plumbago but unique in the Levant flora.