Flora-Fauna

Teucrium stachyophyllum P.H.Davis

(Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 21: 48, 1951; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 105; Pl. XLIX nº 2; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Velvety, grey plant with ascending, herbaceous, few-branched stems, 20–80 cm tall.
• Leaves: Petiolate, cordate or truncate at base, margins dentate with blunt teeth, 20–60 mm long.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers condensed in a dense terminal spike, partly subtended by the uppermost leaf pair; bracts subulate, more or less plumose, exceeding the calyces and protruding from the spike. Flowers horizontal, later somewhat deflexed, shortly pedicellate. Calyx velvety-hispid, slightly accrescent, bilabiate, upper tooth ovate-obtuse, mucronate, lateral teeth smaller, basal teeth lanceolate. Corolla whitish, only slightly exceeding the calyx; stamens included.
• Fruit: Nutlets ovoid, smooth.
• Phenology: Flowers April–June.
• Habitat & elevation: Hedges and bushes, in Mediterranean zones.
• Lebanese distribution: Saïda, between Kfour and Zahrani, Beirut, Nahr el-Kelb, Batroun, Ras Chekka to Hamate, Broummana, ‘Amchit, Gharfine near ‘Amchit, Harissa, Moghaïré, Ghazir, ‘Aïn Zhalta, Faraya, Rayfoun, Feitroun, Ehden.
• Syrian distribution: Hermon; Tartous, Lattaquié, Kessab, Mt Cassius; Slenfé.
• Native range: Lebanon–Syria, Palestine, Turkey.