Family |
Caryophyllaceae
Stellaria cupaniana
(Jord. & Fourr.) Bég.
Stellaria cupaniana (Jord. & Fourr.) Bég.
First published in Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n.s., 15: 552 (1908).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, pp. 473–475; 1966)
• Synonyms: Stellaria media subsp. postii Holmboe; Stellaria neglecta subsp. postii (Holmboe) Sam.; Stellaria media var. pubescens Post.
• Life-form & habit: Robust, dark-green annual with ascending or erect stems. The upper part of the plant is covered with hairs arising from small raised bases, as described under subsp. postii by Mouterde.
• Leaves: Large, reaching or exceeding 4 × 3 cm in Mouterde’s subsp. postii account.
• Inflorescence & flowers: White flowers, following Mouterde’s generic description. Petals equal to or longer than the calyx; ten stamens.
• Fruit & seeds: Seeds with small spines on the back. Mouterde’s generic account describes a capsule opening by six valves above the middle.
• Phenology: January–May, in Mouterde’s encompassing Stellaria media account.
• Habitat & elevation: Woodland, especially more or less degraded woodland, specifically stated for subsp. postii.
• Lebanese distribution: Under subsp. postii: Nahr Beirut, Choueifat, Araya, Ghazir, Bikfaya, the Hadchit valley and the mountains of Akkar.
• Recorded locations: Bherdok.
• Native range: Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Morocco, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Tunisia, Türkiye and Türkiye-in-Europe.
⚠️ Taxonomic note: Kew places Mouterde’s Stellaria media subsp. postii within S. cupaniana. The Lebanese historical localities above are specifically those of subsp. postii. Kew’s current distribution list omits Lebanon-Syria, despite those Mouterde records and the recorded locality supplied here; that discrepancy remains unresolved.