Flora-Fauna

Ziziphora clinopodioides Lam. subsp. clinopodioides

≡ Ziziphora canescens Benth.
≡ Ziziphora clinopodioides Lam. var. canescens (Benth.) Boiss.
(First published as Ziziphora clinopodioides in Tabl. Encycl. 1: 63, 1791; Z. canescens described in Labiat. Gen. Spec.: 321, 1833; treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 181; 1983, as Z. canescens)

• Life-form & habit: Sub-shrubby, prostrate or ascending, much-branched, 10–40 cm tall, glabrous or finely puberulent.

• Leaves: Small, ovate-oblong, 5–6 mm, acute. Floral leaves similar.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Verticillasters united into a single terminal capitulum, sometimes with 1–2 axillary ones. Floral leaves shorter than calyces or caducous. Calyx narrowly cylindrical, 5–8 mm long, subsessile, subgibbous at base, green or purplish, ± velvety. Teeth connivent, very short. Corolla white, about equal to calyx, with tube slightly exserted. Anthers not appendiculate.

• Fruits: Four smooth nutlets, typical of Lamiaceae.

• Phenology: June–August.

• Habitat & elevation: High mountain regions.

• Lebanese distribution: Jabal Barouk, Jabal Kneissé, Jabal Sannine, ‘Aïn Simiane (above Faraya), ‘Aïn Deheb, Mar Sema‘arij Hasroun, Dimane (Yammouné), Bsharré, Les Cèdres, Makmel, Col des Cèdres, Qornet es-Saouda, Jabal Qamou‘a.

• Syrian distribution: Bloudane, Anti-Lebanon above Zebdani, Ma‘loula, Madaya, Yabroud, Ouadi el-Qarn, Jabal ‘Aïn ‘Ansour, Serghaya, Mount Hermon.

• Native range: Altay, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, Lebanon–Syria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, South European Russia, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uzbekistan, West Siberia (POWO).