Family |
Asteraceae
Tripleurospermum oreades
(Boiss.) Rech.f.
Tripleurospermum oreades (Boiss.) Rech.f.
First published in Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. 105(2, 1): 633 (1943).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, pp. 419–420; Pl. CCXXXIII, fig. 1)
Description
Life-form & habit: Tufted perennial with several stems, covered in more or less dense, appressed hairs. Stems ascending, 20–40 cm tall, leafy towards the base and usually bearing a single flower head.
Leaves: Oblong in outline and twice pinnately divided into very fine, short, acute linear segments. Basal leaves stalked; stem leaves smaller and sessile.
Flower heads: Radiate heads, variable in size, 10–25 mm in diameter according to Mouterde. Involucre hairy at the base; bracts with brown, scarious margins, the lower ones triangular and the others oblong. Receptacle hemispherical.
Fruit: Achenes short and compressed, with or without two small apical glands. Dorsal face without ribs; the opposite face wrinkled and tuberculate, divided by narrow grooves into three thick ribs. Apical crown crenate-lobed, approximately one-quarter to one-third as long as the achene body.
Flowering and habitat
Flowering: April–May, according to Mouterde.
Habitat & elevation: Pastures and meadows. No numerical elevation range is supplied in Mouterde’s species account.
Distribution
Lebanese localities: Tripoli (questioned by Mouterde), Bhamdoun, above Ehden and around Ehden, Roueissat, the Cedars, Hasroun, Jourd Hadeth, above Faraya, Towmat Niha, above the Cedars of Bcharré, Yammouné, above Zahlé, Sannine, between Ta’naïl and Zahlé, ‘Ana, Terbol, Baalbeck and Ouadi-el-Harir.
Syrian localities: Maara-Yabroud, Jabal Ma’loula, Bloudane, Aqbat el-Tin, Jdeidet Yabous, Ouadi-el-Qarn and east of it, Maïssalam, Souq Ouadi Barada, Jabal Qasyoun, Hosn Sleiman, Slenfé, the Nébi Younés pass, Cassius, Kizil Dagh, Homs, Aleppo, Tell ‘Aqibrin, west of Sarmada, Soueida–Sâlé, Soueida and north of it, Kafer, Palmyre–Izriyé and 25 km east of Sélémiyé.
Recorded location: Sannine.
Native range: Eastern Türkiye to Israel. POWO lists Lebanon-Syria, Palestine and Türkiye.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
Tripleurospermum oreades and T. caucasicum were united in some recent broad treatments, including POWO in 2021. Kunev & Petrova (2023), in their comparison of T. rosellum with these related species, explicitly accepted T. oreades and T. caucasicum as distinct and provided morphological characters for separating them. Current POWO accepts T. oreades and cites this paper as its authority. Thus, the former use of T. caucasicum in a broad sense must be distinguished from T. caucasicum sensu stricto; the latter is not an unqualified synonym of T. oreades.
Mouterde already treated the Lebanese and Syrian plants as T. oreades. The morphology, flowering period and historical localities above follow that account. Chamaemelum oreades (Boiss.) Boiss. is a homotypic synonym, based on Matricaria oreades Boiss. Mouterde additionally included T. grandiflorum and Chamaemelum grandiflorum in his synonymy; these belong to his historical treatment and are not presented as current POWO synonyms. Mouterde’s broader geographical statement also included Transjordan, whereas the current POWO distribution is given separately above.
The 2023 study concerns morphological separation within this species group and also reidentifies Greek material previously called T. oreades as T. rosellum. It does not itself revise every Lebanese population. Historical database synonymy alone cannot establish an individual specimen’s identity, and the precise date of the subsequent Kew database change is not documented by the cited records.
Sources:
Mouterde, vol. 3, pp. 419–420; Kew POWO; Kunev & Petrova (2023), Flora Mediterranea 33: 39–48.