Flora-Fauna

Verbascum ptychophyllum Boiss.

≡ Verbascum undulatum Benth. p.p. non Lam.
(First published in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 12: 8; 1853. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 213; Pl. CI nº 1; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Robust perennial, 50–200 cm, covered with a dense, woolly-tomentose indumentum, white to yellowish, often glandular above. Stems stout, cylindrical, usually simple.
• Leaves: Basal leaves petiolate; petiole 3–8 cm, blade obovate or obovate-oblong, 5–15 × 3–7 cm, obtuse, sinuate-lobed, somewhat undulate, cuneate at base. Cauline leaves long-decurrent; median ones oblong, dentate-lobed or crenate-dentate; upper leaves ovate to triangular-ovate, entire or slightly dentate, acute.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Inflorescence more or less lax, flowers fasciculate 2–5 in the axils of ovate or subcordate-triangular bracts. Pedicels to 4 mm. Calyx 6–10 mm, woolly and glandular; lobes lanceolate, acute. Corolla yellow, 30–40 mm diam., weakly punctate or not at all, tomentose outside. Stamens 5; filaments with purple-violet hairs; anthers medifixed.
• Fruit: Capsule elliptic-ovoid, 5–6 × 3–4 mm, tomentose, glabrescent at maturity.
• Phenology: Flowers May–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Dry woods, steppe, semi-desert.
• Lebanese distribution: Above Zahlé, Ouadi el-Harir, Jdeidet Yabous, Hermon (Rachaya).
• Syrian distribution: Zebdani, Mnine to Ma‘arah, Jabal Abou ‘Ata, Palmyra, Jabal Abiad, Jabal Dmeir, Khabour desert, Hassetché, Jabal ‘Aziz.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Identified by Boissier (1853) as distinct from V. undulatum Lam. Mouterde confirms its occurrence in Anti-Lebanon and Syrian steppes.