Flora-Fauna

Scutellaria orientalis subsp. alpina (Boiss.) O.Schwarz

≡ Scutellaria orientalis var. alpina Boiss.
(First published in Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 36: 134; 1934. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 111, Pl. LI nº 1; 1984, as Scutellaria orientalis var. alpina Boiss.)

• Life-form & habit: Small, suffruticose perennial 10 – 40 cm tall, woody at the base, with ascending or spreading stems, pubescent or canescent.
• Leaves: Petiolate, ovate to oblong, 1 – 2 cm long, incised-dentate; upper surface green, glabrous or slightly pubescent; lower surface appressed-canescent. Floral leaves membranous, ovate to oblong, entire, covering the calyx.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers arranged in oblong, quadrangular spikes. Corolla pubescent, yellow, often tinged with brown on the upper lip. In subsp. alpina, stems are radicant, forming rosettes of small crenate leaves, each bearing a few large flowers (2 – 3 cm) yellow mixed with reddish-brown.
• Fruit: Nutlets brown, finely tuberculate.
• Phenology: Summer flowering.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky alpine slopes and crevices, 2 400 – 3 000 m.
• Lebanese distribution: Col des Cèdres, Qornet es-Saouda, ʿAyyoun Ourghouch, Makmel, and Birket el-Foukhté (Upper Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon).
• Native range: East Aegean Islands, Greece, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Lebanon.

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: The Lebanese populations correspond to subsp. alpina, the only form recognized by Mouterde (1984), representing the southernmost extension of the Scutellaria orientalis complex in the Levant.

Remark: A photographed population from upper Mount Lebanon (R. Maalouf 2025) shows violet-tinged rather than yellow corollas and purplish or violet veins running along the outer corolla tube, while maintaining all vegetative characters typical of subsp. alpina. This color deviation may represent local polymorphism or affinity with Anatolian violet-flowered forms of the S. orientalis complex.