Family |
Lamiaceae
Thymus syriacus
Boiss.
Leb. Syr. Irq.
Thymus syriacus Boiss.
(First published in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 12: 47; 1853. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 190; Pl. XCII nº 3; 1983)
• Life-form & habit: Low subshrub, variably bushy, 30–50 cm tall; stems erect, partly woody, rigid, covered with short whitish pubescence.
• Leaves: Sessile, rigid, spreading to erect, linear-lanceolate, acute, 1–3 cm long; densely dotted with glabrous glands; often ciliate at the base; sometimes fascicled.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Dense terminal capitula, ovoid to subcylindrical, 1–3 cm or longer. Bracts ovate-oblong, 5–7-nerved, pubescent, as long as calyces. Calyx 6–7 mm, shortly pubescent and punctate; lips subequal, upper oblong and tridenticulate, lower divided into two setaceous teeth. Corolla white, tube shortly exserted beyond calyx.
• Fruit: Nutlets ovoid, brown.
• Phenology: Flowers June–October.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky ground, montane and interior plateaus.
• Lebanese distribution: Mount Makmel above Baalbeck, Ouadi Fou’ara, Orontes sources, Baalbeck, Homs–Tripoli, Rachaya, Hasbaya, Kfar Zebed.
• Syrian distribution: Anti-Lebanon (Jdeidet Yabous, Zebdani, Bloudane, Ma‘loula, etc.), Jabal ‘Abd el-‘Aziz, Palmyra, Hauran, Damascus region.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq. (POWO)
⚠️ Taxonomic note: Mouterde regarded this species as closely allied to T. lanceolatus Benth. var. angustifolius, but distinguished by its dense terminal capitula and shortly exserted white corollas. It represents a Levantine endemic complex within sect. Serpyllum.