Family |
Scrophulariaceae
Verbascum damascenum
Boiss.
Leb. Syr.
Verbascum damascenum Boiss.
First published in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 12: 19 (1853).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, pp. 213–214, Pl. CXI nº 2; 1983)
Description
Life-form & habit: Biennial herb, 50–80 cm tall, covered with white or yellowish tomentum, becoming glabrous with age. Stems robust, cylindrical and branched.
Leaves: Basal leaves petiolate, with petioles 3–10 cm long; blades nearly round-ovate to elliptic, 6–15 × 4–10 cm, obtuse, finely crenate, with a truncate, rounded or tapering base. Cauline leaves smaller, shortly petiolate to nearly sessile, with an ovate or rounded base and a shortly acuminate apex.
Inflorescence & flowers: Inflorescence branched and relatively loose. Flowers clustered in umbel-like fascicles of 2–7 in the bract axils. Bracts linear-subulate; pedicels 1–4 mm long; bracteoles linear. Calyx 2–4 mm long, with acute, linear-lanceolate lobes. Corolla yellow, 15–25 mm across, usually with translucent dots, tomentose outside, rarely glabrous. Stamens 5; anthers attached at their middle. Filaments clothed in purple-violet hairs, the two upper filaments glabrous toward their tips.
Fruit: Capsule oblong-cylindrical, 5–8 × 3–4 mm, tomentose, becoming glabrous.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Flowers April–August.
Habitat & elevation: Dry hills and mountains. No numerical elevation range specified in Mouterde’s account.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Tannourine.
Syrian distribution: Damas, Jabal Qasyoun, Jerijir, Ouadi Zemrani, between Ma’arrah and Baalbeck, Yabroud, Jabal Halimé, Jabal Ma’loula, Flita, Jabal Omeir; Hermon summit, Abou Nida and Buq Ata.
Native range: Lebanon-Syria.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
Distinguished from Verbascum cedreti by its purple-violet filament hairs, rather than yellowish hairs, and its oblong-cylindrical capsule. Mouterde gives a broader geographical range including Iraq and Palestine, whereas Kew POWO currently lists only Lebanon-Syria.