Argyrocytisus battandieri (Maire) Raynaud
Cytisus battandieri Maire, Adenocarpus battandieri (Maire) Talavera
Eng.: Pineapple broom. Fre.: Grand cytise de l’Atlas. Tam.: Ahamjej, akhamelel.
Shrub up to 4 m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, deciduous —loses its leaves in late winter—, erect, very ramose. Stems and old branches with reddish bark, with transverse blackish lenticels. Young branchlets angular, greenish, densely silvery-sericeous. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, with caducous stipules, petiolate, with petiole 1.5-5 cm, hairy, and leaflets 6-11 × 2.5-4.5 cm, subsessile, obovate or oblong-obovate, obtuse, attenuated at the base, entire, green, sometimes silvery at first, ± appressed-hairy on both sides, the central leaflet always somewhat larger. Inflorescences racemose, very dense, terminal, cylindrical or narrowly ovoid, erect, pedunculate, with numerous pedicellate flowers, with pedicel c. 2 mm, villous-silky, silvery, each accompanied by 2 caducous bracteoles. Calyx 7-8 mm, herbaceous, campanulate, bilabiate, the upper lip with 2 deep teeth and the lower lip larger and tridentate, with the central tooth larger, densely villous-silky. Corolla 15-17 mm, papilionoid, yellow, with an ovate or suborbicular standard, villous on the dorsal side, and wings and keel smaller than the standard, hairy only at the margins. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary hairy, and capitate stigma. Pod 40-60 × 8-10 mm, linear-oblong, straight or slightly arched, compressed, acuminate, attenuated at the base, green at first and then brown, densely villous, with 6-10 seeds. Seeds 3-4 mm, ovoid, compressed, smooth, reddish-brown.
Flowering:
June to July.
Fruiting:
September to November.
Habitat:
Mountain forests (Quercus ilex, Q. faginea, and, particularly, in cedar forests), between 1,200-2,100 m in altitude, on calcareous, siliceous and sometimes in dolomitic substrates, in subhumid to hyperhumid bioclimate, on mesomediterranean and supramediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Endemic to Morocco (mountains and plateaux of the central-western Rif and the central-northern Middle Atlas).
Conservation status:
A relatively common species but with a small distribution area. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, it is listed as Dta Deficient (DD) at global level.