Flora-Fauna

Stachys nivea Labill.

(First published in Icon. Pl. Syr. 3: 5; 1809)

• Life-form & habit: Suffruticose at the base, 30–40 cm tall, entirely covered with a dense white-woolly indumentum.
• Leaves: Subsessile, entire; venation strongly raised beneath. Lower leaves attenuate at base; floral leaves lanceolate, somewhat acute, exceeding the flowers.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Pseudo-verticils numerous, with 4–6 flowers, either subdistant or close-set into long spikes. Bracts absent or very short. Calyx white, tubular-campanulate; teeth triangular-lanceolate, muticous, three times shorter than the tube. Corolla white, 10–12 mm, pubescent, tube included.
• Fruit: Nutlets not described in detail by Mouterde.
• Phenology: Flowers April–August.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky ground, montane to subalpine.
• Lebanese distribution: Yammouné, Zahlé, Deir el-Ahmar, Baalbeck, ‘Aïn Bourdai, Baalbeck–Ras Baalbeck, Yanta, Rachaya, Ouadi el-Harir.
• Syrian distribution: Bloudane, Talaat Moussa, Ma‘loula–Saïdnaya, Qastal, Jabal Qasyoun, Doummar, Ouadi Barada, Mayssaloun, Sahl-es-Sahra, environs of Damascus.
• Native range: Endemic to the Levant (Lebanon and western Syria).