Flora-Fauna

Sideritis libanotica Labill.

(First published in Icon. Pl. Syr. 4: 13; 1812. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 125; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Suffrutescent, pluricaul, white-woolly at the base of stems and on young shoots; stems slender, 40–80 cm, pubescent.
• Leaves: Ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, more or less acute, with prominent nerves, margin subentire or slightly dentate.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Pseudoverticils in elongated inflorescences, rather loose, few-flowered; floral leaves submembranous, cordate-orbicular, scarcely acuminate, pubescent-woolly. Calyx with mucronate teeth, about half the length of the tube. Corolla yellow, tube included.
• Varieties:
 – var. incana Boiss.: entirely canescent, with appressed tomentum.
 – var. linearis Benth.: stems rigid, yellowish; indumentum reduced to sparse pubescence; leaves linear-lanceolate, glabrescent; floral leaves long-attenuate.
• Phenology: Flowers July–August.
• Habitat & elevation: Mountain slopes, often in cedar and high montane habitats.
• Lebanese distribution: Jabal Barouk, Jabal Kneissé, Jabal Sannine, Dimane to Yammouneh, Hasroun, Hadeth, Bsharré, ‘Aqoura, Les Cèdres, Hermon.
• Syrian distribution: Anti-Lebanon (Ma‘loula, Bloudane, Serghaya, Qalamoun), Jabal Cassius and Bassit region.
• Native range: Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Türkey (POWO)

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Labillardière described the species from Lebanon. Mouterde accepted it with two varieties (incana and linearis).