Flora-Fauna

Teucrium socinianum Boiss.

≡ Teucrium yebrudi Post (syn., nomen superfluum; later rejected by Post himself)

(First published in Fl. Orient. 4: 818; 1879. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 109; Pl. L nº 4; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Suffrutescent at the base, much-branched, 10–20 cm tall. Stems short, ascending, herbaceous, densely white-tomentose, terminating in loose oblong clusters of flowers.
• Leaves: Sessile, ashy-tomentose, convolute, margins deeply pectinate-lobulate. Floral leaves elliptic, acute, flat, slightly shorter than calyx.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers borne on pedicels shorter than the calyx. Calyx campanulate, viscous-hispid, slightly gibbous at base; teeth lanceolate, very acute, subequal, about half as long as the tube. Corolla purple, twice the length of calyx; stamens long-exserted.
• Fruit: Nutlets not detailed by Mouterde.
• Phenology: Flowers in summer.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky slopes, low to montane zones.
• Lebanese distribution: Ouadi Fou’ara at low elevation (Mount Lebanon).
• Syrian distribution: Ma‘loula, Jabal Ma‘loula, Yabroud (under the synonym T. yebrudi), Jabal Halimé.
• Native range: Endemic to  Lebanon and Syria.

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Mouterde (1983) confirmed the identity of T. yebrudi Post with T. socinianum Boiss., noting that Post himself had annulled his own name in his herbarium. Dinsmore, however, still retained T. yebrudi in his 1933 revision of Post’s flora.