Iris antilibanotica Dinsm. (1934 "1933":599)
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Rediscovered (in the wild?) (fide Humphreys et al., 2019)
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
Sometimes said to be Extinct in the Wild (e.g. WCMC, 1992:224, 1996 fide Huymphreys et al., 2019). The population in Lebanon may be due to the translocation of plants and thus not a natural population (Rhea et al., 2021). The wild Syrian population is known to still be extant courtesy of two Research Grade iNaturalist photographic observations in May 2025 by Omar Hassan Al-Halabi, including an apparently new population. The species thus qualifies as Rediscovered or Rediscovered in the Wild, as it is unclear to me whether ex-situ germplasm existed prior to its Rediscovery in the field.
Distribution & Habitat
Anti-Lebanon Mountains, western Syria (& Lebanon?)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Abdel Samad, N., Bou Dagher-Kharrat, M., Hidalgo, O., El Zein, R., Douaihy, B. and Siljak-Yakovlev, S. (2016). Unlocking the Karyological and Cytogenetic Diversity of Iris from Lebanon: Oncocyclus Section Shows a Distinctive Profile and Relative Stasis during Its Continental Radiation. PLoS ONE 11(8): e0160816. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160816
Ghazal, A. (2008). Landscape, ecological, phytosociological and geobotanical study of Eu-Mediterranean in West of Syria. Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Hohenheim.
Humphreys, Aelys M., Govaerts, Rafaël, Ficinski, Sarah Z., Lughadha, Eimear Nic and Vorontsova, Maria S. (2019). Global dataset shows geography and life form predict modern plant extinction and rediscovery. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 1043-1047. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0906-2 [Supplementary Dataset 1]
Lansdown, R. V. (2016). Iris antilibanotica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T13161361A18610864. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T13161361A18610864.en. Downloaded on 20 March 2021.
Mouterde, P. (1966). Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie. Dar El-Mashreq Editeurs, Beirut, Lebanon.
Post, G. E. (1933). Fl. Syria, Palestine & Sinai 2: 583-604. American Press, Beirut.
POWO. (2025). Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 27 July 2025]
Radford, E. A., Catullo, G. and de Montmollin, B. (2011). Important Plant Areas of the south and east Mediterranean region: Priority sites for conservation. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Malaga, Spain.
Rhea, Kahale, Christina, El Habr and Magda, Bou Dagher Kharrat. (2021). Archaeological sites in Lebanon, new locations for plant conservation breakthrough [poster presentation]. In: Bacchetta, G., de Montmollin, B., Fournaraki, C., Gotsiou, P. and Kokkinaki, A. (eds.). Book of Abstracts. 3
rd Mediterranean Plant Conservation Week “Plant Conservation Strategies: from Science to Practice” Chania, Crete, Greece, 27 September to 1 October 2021. Chania, CIHEAM-MAICh.
Walter, Kerry S. and Gillett, Harriet J. (eds.). (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland & Cambridge, UK: IUCN – The World Conservation Union. lxiv + 862 pp.
WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre). (1992). Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth's living resources. London: Chapman & Hall. xx + 594 pp.
WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre). (1996). Threatened plant database of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. W.C.M.C., Cambridge, U.K.
West, W. A. (1967). Iris antilibanotica. ASI Yearbook [1967]: 64-66.
Wilson, C. A., Padiernos, J. and Sapir, Y. (2016). The royal irises (Iris subg. Iris sect. Oncocyclus): Plastid and low-copy nuclear data contribute to an understanding of their phylogenetic relationships. Taxon 65(1): 35-46. https://doi.org/10.12705/651.3