Family |
Scrophulariaceae
Verbascum caesareum
Boiss.
Leb. Syr. Tur. Pal.
Verbascum caesareum Boiss.
(Diagn. Pl. Orient. 12: 7; 1853. — Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 217; 1983)
• Life-form & habit: Robust biennial or short-lived perennial, 75–100 cm tall, covered with floccose-tomentose, rough, yellowish indumentum, becoming glabrescent. Stems stout, cylindrical, simple.
• Leaves: Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 3–10 cm; blade ovate-oblong, 12–30 × 6–16 cm, obtuse, subcordate or cuneate at base, crenate. Cauline leaves similar but smaller.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Inflorescence spicate, simple or sparsely branched. Flowers fasciculate in groups of 3–5 (usually 4) at the axil of bracts. Bracts lanceolate, tomentose and glandular. Pedicels absent or very short; bracteoles lanceolate. Calyx 9–12 mm, with yellowish hairs, eglandular and glandular, lobes linear-lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla yellow, 25–40 mm in diameter, not punctate-translucent, densely tomentose outside. Stamens 5; filaments with purple-violet hairs.
• Fruit: Capsule broadly ovate, 8–10 × 6–8 mm, tomentose, becoming glabrous.
• Phenology: Flowers April–June.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky slopes, roadsides, maquis.
• Lebanese distribution: Ct. Nahr Damour, Nahr-el-Kelb, Nahr Ibrahim, Ras Chekka; Mm. above Beskinta, Sir to Neba‘ Succar, above Niha, ruins of Afqa.
• Native range: Turkey (Amanus), Syria, Lebanon, Palestine