Flora-Fauna

Silene sefidiana (Pau) K. Marhold

≡ Silene boryi Boiss. var. sefidiana Pau

(First published in Trab. Mus. Nac. Ci. Nat., Ser. Bot. 14: 11; 1918. Treated in Nouv. Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 499, Pl. CLXXI nº 3; 1966, as Silene boryi var. sefidiana Pau)

• Life-form & habit: Dwarf perennial 5 – 10 cm, with a long rootstock lodged in rock crevices, producing a few leaves and one to several short, erect flowering stems.

• Leaves: Oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, green, with spreading, slightly glandular pubescence; some borne on very short sterile shoots.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Stems glandular-pubescent, few-leaved, each carrying 1–2 flowers. Calyx 2 – 3 cm, cylindro-conical, truncate at base, purplish-nerved, with narrow triangular subacute teeth margined by a thin membrane. Petals white or pale pink, bifid to mid-length; coronal lobes oblong.

• Fruit: Capsule ovoid, as long as or slightly shorter than the calyx.

• Phenology: Summer flowering.

• Habitat & elevation: High-mountain summits and rocky slopes, above 2 400 m.

• Lebanese distribution: Jabal Sannine, Makmel summits, Qornet es-Saouda, Hermon.

• Native range: Lebanon and Syria (according to Euro+Med PlantBase).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Boissier originally associated the Lebanese plants with S. tejedensis Boiss., but Mouterde recognized them as distinct, matching Pau’s var. sefidiana from Kuh-Sefid. While Kew (POWO) and GBIF synonymize this taxon under S. daenensis Melzh. (endemic to Iran), the Euro+Med PlantBase (K. Marhold, Caryophyllaceae account) accepts Silene sefidiana as a valid species endemic to Lebanon and Syria.

Source: Marhold, K. 2011+: Caryophyllaceae. – In: Euro+Med Plantbase – the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Published at https://europlusmed.org/.