Family |
Fabaceae
Vicia canescens
Labill.
Vicia canescens Labill.
First published in Icon. Pl. Syr. 1: 17 (1791).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 409, Pl. CLXVIII, 2; 1970)
Description
Life-form & habit: Perennial densely clothed in greyish-white wool, with several erect, rigid, fairly thick stems, 20–60 cm tall.
Leaves: Stipules elongate, half-ovate and arrow-shaped. Upper leaves end in a very short woolly tendril; the others have a terminal leaflet smaller than the neighbouring pair. Leaflets in 8–12 closely spaced pairs, linear-elliptical and very woolly, blunt, with the uppermost sometimes pointed.
Inflorescence & flowers: Dense racemes about as long as the leaves. Flowers approximately 15 mm long; calyx woolly, with an oblique mouth. Corolla pink-violet, about twice as long as the calyx.
Fruit: Densely bristly, oblong-linear pod containing one seed.
Flowering and habitat
Habitat & elevation: Rocky slopes of the upper Makmel massif. Mouterde reports that grazing animals apparently leave the plants uneaten; no numerical elevation is supplied.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Upper Makmel, from Foumm el Mizhab along the rocky slopes for several kilometres toward Qornet es Saouda.
Recorded locations: Makmel.
Native range: Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon-Syria and Türkiye.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
Mouterde calls his regional plant endemic, whereas Kew accepts Vicia canescens with a much wider species range. Verification of the narrower Lebanese endemism claim against the FloraFauna endemic-flora checklist was unavailable, so Lebanese endemism is not asserted here. Mouterde gives neither a flowering period nor a Syrian locality in this account.