Satureja avromanica

Suffruticose, perennial; 35-80 cm high, many stemmed, slender, nonaromatic or lemon-scented; mostly simple or with a few branches with woody stock and short brachyblasts in its leaf-axils; ± angled but not tetragonal, ascending-arcuate to erect, grayish green above, creamy at the middle and brown below with dense or rather lax papilla and sometimes sparse stipitate glands above; glabrous to sparsely papillose below. Leaves are opposite or in fascicles, entire, lax, sessile or subsessile in lower part with petiole up to 1 mm long, cuneate-oblong to cuneate-obovate or lanceolate; up to 35 mm long and up to 6 mm broad, oblanceolate; upper leaves are smaller than the lower leaves, grayish-green, dotted with hyaline yellowish-orange or green sessile glands and covered by lax or dense papilla; sometimes glaberescent in mature and on lower leaf surfaces, obtuse to subacute, flattened, revolute to involute at the margin; main nerve distinctly prominent. Inflorescence terminal, in lax cymes, main inflorescence longer than the laterals on branches; verticillasters mainly with 3 or rarely 1-2 flowers; pedicels 1-4mm long, shorter than the calyx; bracts c.1 mm long, lanceolate or oblong-ovate, folded lengthwise; bracteoles 2, smaller than the bracts, nearly the same shape. Calyx pubescent, dark purple in the beginning, paler to green later, 3.5-6.5 mm long, tubular, 2- labiate, sometimes covered with papilla and sessile or stipitate glands on the outside, more or less glabrous inside, 10 veined; teeth of the calyx shortly hairy at the margin; lower lip teeth 1.7-2 mm, upper c.1 mm long, subulate-triangular. Corolla pubescent, slender, violet to purplish-lilac, paler below the tube to white, 10-30 mm long, straight, covered with papilla and sparse yellowish sessile glands, decrease below; inner surface of the middle and lower lobes usually with fasiculate violet hairs; other lobes with sparse whitish papilla; inner surface of corolla tube in lower part of stamens pilose; upper lobes slightly shorter than the lowers; tube without ring of hairs. Stamens 4, included in tube; the anterior pair longer; upper filaments 1.5 and lower filaments 1.8-2.5 mm long. Anthers sagittate, purplish-violet, 0.5 mm long. Style shorter than the stamens in the beginning, developed later and exerted from the tube; style branches equal or subequal. 4 nutlets, minutely glandular-hairy above, with obtuse- rounded apex, bright to deep brown, ± smooth, 1.75×0.79 mm long, oblong to broadly ovate,with 4-5 nerves in posterior. Pollen grains isoplar, 6- colpate, oblate , polar axis 38.52 μm, equatorial axis 43.68 μm. Amb hexagonal. Exine were 1.40 μm thick. clg 35.58 μm, clt 5.72 μm. Apocolpium was large. Membrane of colpus granulate. Exine reticulate. Diameter of lumina 0.73 μm, muri 0.27μm.

Habitat: Rock crevices, dry limestone bushy slopes

Phenology: Flowering and fruiting times from September- October to November

Iran