''Lilium ledebourii'' (, ''Sousan-e Chehel Cheraagh''; ) is a rare
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
n species of plants in the
lily family. It was named for German-Estonian botanist
(1786-1851). Its native range is the
Talish region of
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
, and
Damasch in the
Amarlu
Amarlu District () is in Rudbar County, Gilan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Jirandeh.
History
Amarlu has been one of the dominant Kurmanj tribes in Gilan Province. According to Rabino, the Rashvands formed another inhabitant o ...
region of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
.
[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]
/ref>[Takhtajan, A.L. (ed.) (2006). Conspectus Florae Caucasi 2: 1-466. Editio Universitatis Petropolitanae]
''Lilium ledebourii'' flowers from the middle of May until the end of May. The Damasch region is protected by the Department of Environment of Iran. The flower is called '' Sousan-e Chehel Cheraagh'' in Iran and the local area and its appearance is one of the most striking features in the area at the time of blooming.
Description
''Lilium ledebourii'' is a persistent herbaceous plant that grows 50–150 centimeters tall. The yellow bulbs are oval and reach a diameter of 5–7 centimeters; they are highly segmented, and the scales are lance-shaped.
The stem is strong and straight. The leaves stand upright, and have fine hairs on the edge; their shape
A shape is a graphics, graphical representation of an object's form or its external boundary, outline, or external Surface (mathematics), surface. It is distinct from other object properties, such as color, Surface texture, texture, or material ...
is linear to lance-shaped. They are 10–14 centimeters long, and 1–2 centimeters wide.
The monoecious
Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...
plant blooms in June and July with a panicle
In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...
of one to fifteen fragrant flowers. The flowers are actinomorphic
Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts.
Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spirall ...
and attached on up to 13-centimeter-long petioles. The bracts
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 loo ...
are lanceolate, and blue at the top. The six 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 are strongly reflexed and form a tiara of 4–6 cm in diameter. The basic color of the flower is white, turning green towards the base and purple towards the tepal-tips. The filaments are green, and the pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...
bright red. The seed capsule, which has the shape of an inverted egg, is approximately hexagonal, 3–4.5 centimeters long and 2.5–3.2 centimeters wide. The seeds ripen until September, and their germination is delayed-epigeous
Epigeal, epigean, epigeic and epigeous are biological terms describing an organism's activity above the soil surface.
In botany, a seed is described as showing epigeal germination when the cotyledons of the germinating seed expand, throw off the ...
: the leaves that the seedling had as an embryo become photosynthetic once they emerge from the soil.
Habitat
''Lilium ledebourii'' occurs at altitudes around 2,100 meter. It needs a dry, sunny position in well-drained soil, it is very susceptible to moisture. In June 2012 Dr. M.R. Asef an Iranian Mycologist and researcher found ''Lilium ledebourii'' from Vaz forest in Noor (Mazandaran province)at altitudes around 1670 meter .
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q289961
ledebourii
Flora of Azerbaijan
Flora of Iran
Plants described in 1875
Taxa named by John Gilbert Baker
Taxa named by Pierre Edmond Boissier