''Acis fabrei'' is a

bulb In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

ous

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the family

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus '' Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryl ...

, native to France. It has white flowers that appear in late spring after the leaves. Although first collected in 1882, it was not scientifically described until 1990. It is now known from only four populations in the Vaucluse department in south-east France, around

Mont Ventoux Mont Ventoux (; ) is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, located some northeast of Carpentras, Vaucluse. On the north side, the mountain borders the department of Drôme. At , it is the highest mountain in the region and h ...

and the River Nesque. It is considered to be a "threatened species".

Description

''Acis fabrei'' is a small

ous

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

. Each bulb produces one to four narrow leaves, 2 to 5 mm wide and up to 30 cm long, averaging around 17 cm. The leaves appear before the flowers. Flowering takes place in late spring with the flowers held considerably below the top of leaves. There is usually a single flower to each stem ( peduncle), with six white

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s, 10–11 mm long, carried on a stalk (

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

) 5–11 mm long. The flower bud is enclosed in a

spathe In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

that is divided into two segments. The

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

is slightly longer than the six

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s. The smooth black seeds are 2–3 mm long. The whole plant dies down in early summer.

Taxonomy

''Acis fabrei'' was first collected in 1882 on the southern slopes of

. Specimens were sent to the National Museum of Natural History in Paris by the entomologist

Jean-Henri Fabre Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (; 21 December 1823 – 11 October 1915) was a French naturalist, entomologist, and author known for the lively style of his popular books on the lives of insects. Biography Fabre was born on 21 December 1823 in Saint- ...

. It was only re-discovered in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1990, it was first described as a new species, as ''Leucojum fabrei''. In 2004, it was transferred to ''

Acis The 3D ACIS Modeler (ACIS) is a geometric modeling kernel developed by Spatial Corporation (formerly Spatial Technology), part of Dassault Systèmes. ACIS is used by software developers in industries such as computer-aided design, computer-ai ...

'', along with other species of ''Leucojum'', on the basis of a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study. It resembles ''

Acis nicaeensis ''Acis nicaeensis'', commonly called the winter snowflake, Elizabeth Lawrence. ''The Little Bulbs: A Tale of Two Gardens.'' Duke University Press, 1986.

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branch ...

, and a larger distance between the stigma and the anther">Stigma (botany)">stigma and the anthers.

Distribution and habitat

, ''Acis fabrei'' was only known from four populations in the Vaucluse department in south-east France, around

and the River Nesque. All the populations are within 20 km of one another. Plants are found in eroded soils poor in organic matter, such as Terra rossa (soil)">terra rossa Terra rossa (Italian for 'red soil') is a well-drained, reddish, clayey to silty soil with neutral pH conditions and is typical of the Mediterranean region. The reddish color of terra rossa is the result of the preferential formation of hematite ...

, in rocky glades, grassy areas and under ''Quercus pubescens''.

Conservation

, ''Acis fabrei'' was not listed in the IUCN Red List, although listed as a "threatened species" in the French . The species occurs in a generally protected region of France; two populations are in an area with a management plan that includes ''Acis fabrei''. One threat is the natural and deliberate expansion of forests, which produces closed canopies and, where the trees are pines or cedars, more acid soils through the build-up of leaf litter. Wild boars are another threat as they can destroy many individual plants.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5656659 fabrei Flora of France Plants described in 1990