Stachys aleurites

Stachys aleurites Boiss. & Heldr.

Some Observational Notes

* PDF of this blog with a gallery of photos showing characteristics : archive.org or academia.edu

All Species Accounts

Location

Stachys aleurites is found within Antalya city and close by. As you progress away from the city, in its wooded edges Stachys bombycina becomes more common, and also at times plants of intermediate appearance between the two. Records quoted A have it appearing to about 20 km from central Atatürk Park, with additional records at 50 km NE and a 1950 record from Mersin, together reaching an altitude of 1275 m.

Habitat

It grows on the surfaces of natural calcareous rocks, on sloping faces and vertical sides, both exposed to the sun and in shade that receives little or no direct sunlight. As a large plant with a substantial base, it tends to grow from the rock cracks and holes rather than actually on the surfaces.

It grows at the top of the sea cliffs but doesn't seem to grow down its sides. However on the east end of the Beach Park it grows on the large rocks at the start of the beach elevated from the ground, so it may be that the difficulty in growing on the cliff sides is due to high wind and inability to be dispersed there, more than a dislike of salt spray from winter storms.

Appearance

It grows to be a moderate to large plant with generally simple, wiry-looking stems. Like many of these rockside Stachys, it has two modes of growth. In one mode, usually when growing on upper surfaces and slopes, but also on vertical sides, the plant is roundly-proportioned and its stems are straightish with the central ones perpendicular to the plant base (even if growing sideways) and the edge ones spreading at an angle, though on vertical sides this may be asymmetrically proportioned so as to be generally upwards or downwards (in which case the stems may also include an upward curve), but in the other growth mode, usually on vertical sides, particularly in the shade, the plant hangs its parts downwards in a straggly fashion up to about 1.5 m in length and its stems hanging down then curve outwards, though in the first erect growth mode it is very much shorter. This dual growth habit isn't reflected in botanical treatments, which tend to convey it as an erect plant.

Initially the whole plant has a greyish white look due to a thin surface matting of cobwebby hairs, however as it matures this is gradually lost, and when properly aged the stems lack these hairs or nearly so, resulting in green stems, becoming eventually brown hairless stems - by January the stems are mostly brownish, except for late-flowering plants. By contrast, the most similar plant, S. bombycina (and S. distans, an eastern species seen in Içel), has a dense woolly surface that is retained even on the gone-over brown stems and calyxes.

Its flowers are clustered densely together on very short stalks in whorls, usually 3 or more whorls, but generally no more than 6, the top few whorls tending to be fairly close together, though not always. The recent PDF on the section A gives up to 12 whorls, which when occurring in my exerience would be a very remarkable sight.

The flowers are white, with pale purple or pink dots and lines on the lower lip and two dark purple V shapes on the upper lip (with some minor markings), so that the inner edges of the two upper Vs are thinner and form a straight guideline into the flower, and the two outer edges are broader and presumably attract insects from a distance. These markings can at times broaden, such that the lower lip may end up rather pink-looking rather than white, or the upper lip may have outer edges broadened to form substantial areas of dark purple. There is usually some colouring present, so unusually when the colours are so weak that the flowers look white (which only needs to be the lower lip when looking from above), it is very eye-catching.

In Geyikbayırı I have some old photos of the species that have notably different flower markings (see end photos), which would be worth investigating, given the strong interrelation of flower patterns, insects and speciation. The altitude there was about 500 m.

The calyx lobes very strikingly have long hard tips that in maturing recurve and also lose their white felt, and become large spiny balls, at first green, and then brown. This distinguishes it from S. bombycina (and S. distans) with both those retaining their white wool, and S. bombycina further having rather erect poorly-spined calyx lobes.

Flowering Times

S. aleurites can be found flowering much of the year, from the end of March all the way through to the start of February, so you will have to look around a little to find it flowering in the trailing months of that range and it would be difficult to find flowering mid-Feb to mid-Mar.

Threats

The plant is currently given A as NT (Near-Threatened; IUCN 2017) due to human activities (tourism) and urbanisation, a change from LC (Least Concern). My impression of the species is that due to the habitats it grows on, as well as the distant locations it is found in, it is unlikely to be extinguished by human activities, however human developments could certainly cut down and fragment the number of spots it is presently found to grow on, since it happily grows on small isolated rocks which can be some of the first to be removed for development; certainly in the last decades the expanse of the city must have wiped it out from a large part of the developable lowlands where the city now stands; but the vertical faces of some of the parks and riversides and other cavities should ensure its continuance. Climate change therefore seems to me to pose the more critical challenge to its existence, although the extensive altitude range suggests it will be able to persist.

Future Research

● Refind and photo the anomalous Geyikbayırı forms.

● Explore the forms that are intermediate between S. aleurites and S. bombycina.

● See how the brown end of season stems cycle into green start of season stems.

● Explore the glanding among the hairs.

● Record the insects visiting it.

Botanical Descriptions and References

● 2020 - Taxonomic revision of Stachys sect. Olisia (Lamiaceae: Lamioideae) in Turkey, E. Akçiçek [Ref: "A"]

● 1982 - Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, vol. 7, P.H.Davis, p. 204 (key) and p. 246 (description).

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