Family |
Rosaceae
Sanguisorba verrucosa
(Link ex G.Don) Ces.
Sanguisorba verrucosa (Link ex G. Don) Ces.
(Stirp. Ital. Rar. 2: ad tab. S. dodecandrae; 1842 – Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CLXXVI nº 3; 1969)
• Life-form & habit: Perennial herb 30–80 cm tall, with slender, erect or ascending stems arising from a woody rhizome. Stems simple or few-branched, angular, and sparsely hairy below the inflorescence.
• Leaves: Basal leaves long-petiolate, imparipinnate with 5–12 pairs of opposite or subopposite leaflets; leaflets elliptic to obovate, 5–20 × 3–10 mm, crenate-serrate, glabrous above, slightly pubescent beneath. Cauline leaves smaller, with fewer pairs of leaflets.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Terminal, ovoid to oblong, dense spikes (heads) 1–3 cm long, reddish to purplish. Flowers numerous, apetalous, unisexual or bisexual. Calyx of 4 reddish lobes; stamens 2–4, strongly exserted and conspicuous; styles long, slender, with plumose stigmas.
• Fruit: Small, dry, indehiscent nutlet enclosed within the persistent calyx tube, slightly warty (verrucose) on the surface.
• Phenology: Flowers from March to June; fruits mature from May to July.
• Habitat & elevation: Dry meadows, rocky or sandy slopes, and open scrub on limestone or alluvial soils, from sea level up to 1 400 m.
• Lebanese distribution: Recorded by Mouterde from Mount Lebanon and coastal hills — notably Beirut, Dahr el-Baïdar, Barouk, Zahlé, and Falougha; frequent in dry Mediterranean grasslands and open slopes.
• Native range: Algeria, Azores, Baleares, Canary Islands, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Egypt, France, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon–Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Sicilia, Sinai, Spain, Tunisia, Türkiye (POWO).
• Extinct in: Türkiye-in-Europe (POWO).
• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Easily distinguished from Sanguisorba minor by its warty (verrucose) fruits, longer spikes, and more numerous leaflets. Sometimes treated as Sanguisorba minor subsp. verrucosa (Link ex G. Don) Arcang., but morphological and geographic evidence support specific rank. A characteristic species of the Mediterranean basin, frequent in dry grasslands and phrygana.