Family |
Caryophyllaceae
Silene behen
L.
Silene behen L.
First published in Sp. Pl.: 418 (1753).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 489, Pl. CLXVI, 1; 1966)
• Life-form & habit: Hairless, slightly bluish annual, 20–40 cm tall, with stems branching once or twice into equal forks.
• Leaves: Pointed and obovate below, oblong-lanceolate above.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Mostly stalkless flowers, except those at the forks, whose stalks thicken after flowering. The whitish calyx has inconspicuous green or purple veins and expands from oblong to oval in fruit. Petals have short, deeply divided pink blades and a reduced crown.
• Fruit: Oval capsule on a very short supporting stalk. Seeds are rough and tuberculate, deeply grooved on the back.
• Phenology: Flowering March–May.
• Habitat & elevation: Roadsides and grassy places.
• Lebanese distribution: Nahr Qazmiye, Nahr Damour, Khalde, Saida, Beirut and its surroundings, Fidar, Tripoli, Qalaat Fakhra, Hasroun, Niha, Sarada, Wadi el Arayech, Rachaya, Hasbani, Ain el Qabou and Kfertay.
• Syrian distribution: Wadi Qandil, Wadi el Qarn and Soueida.
• Native range: Algeria, Canary Is., Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Egypt, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Palestine, Sicilia, Sinai, Spain, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe.
• Introduced into: Sardegna.