Family |
Rosaceae
Potentilla libanotica
Boiss.
Leb. Syr. Tur.
Potentilla libanotica Boiss.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 213; 1969. First published in Diagnoses Plantarum Orientalium ser. 1, 3: 4, 1843)
• Life-form & habit: Perennial with a thick, blackish stock; pluricaul or branched from the base, 10–30 cm tall. Indumentum greyish-yellow, not silvery-canescens, composed of flexuous hairs with slight glandularity.
• Leaves: Basal leaves sometimes withering at anthesis, unequal, long-petiolate, 3-lobed; lobes ovate, cuneate at base, dentate at margin, hispid, green on both surfaces. Stem bases clothed with yellowish scales. Cauline leaves 4–5, strongly stipulate, trilobed, lower ones petiolate.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Rich inflorescence of numerous corymbs. Calyx with subequal ovate-triangular lobes. Petals obovate, longer than calyx. Staminal filaments hirsute only at base. Receptacle with long hairs, obscuring the hirsute carpels.
• Fruit: Achenes hairy, concealed by receptacular hairs.
• Phenology: Flowers June–August.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky mountain slopes, usually on sandy-dolomitic soils.
• Lebanese distribution: Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon: Hadeth (Ehrenb.), Ehden and the Cedars (Auch., Boiss., Ky., Bl., P), Qadisha Gorge near the Cedars (Bl., Dlb., Mt.), Bcharré (Np), Ehden forest (Mt), Hasroun (Bl., Mt), Faraya to Afqa (Hartm.), Ehmej (Pb), above Sir (P), Laqlouq (P, Np, Mt), Jabal Jrad above Qartaba (Mt).
• Native range: Lebanon and the Amanus