Adenocarpus faurei Maire
Eng.: Tiaret’s broom. Spa.: Codeso de Tiaret. Fre.: Adénocarpe de Tiaret. Ara.: Urziz, auzzir, agultín.
Subshrub, 0.4-1.3 m in height, perennial, hermaphrodite. Stems and old branches unarmed, with corky-brown and hollow bark. Young branchlets whitish and villous, with well developed foliar fascicles. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, with petioles and stipules. Stipules up to 2 mm, free, linear-lanceolate and marcescent. Leaflets 2.5-9 × 1.5-5 mm —they can reach up to 14 × 4 mm in the shade and in the most favourable seasons—, sessile, obovate-oblong or oblong, entire, ± attenuated at the base and often notched at the apex, green, glabrous on the upper side and villous on the underside, ciliate along the margin. Inflorescence in umbelliform racemes, short and with typically with 3-6 flowers, usually terminal and pedunculate on bare branchlets; more rarely lateral and sessile. Calyx bilabiate, very villous, whitish, with the lower lip divided more than halfway into 2 straight, lanceolate segments. Corolla 1.5 times longer than the calyx. Standard 8-9 mm, obovate or orbicular, emarginate at the apex and attenuated at the base into a wide claw (up to 1 mm). Wings glabrous and keel slightly longer, but shorter than the standard. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Pod 10-18 × 4.5 mm, linear, flattened, coriaceous, brown, glabrous, only slightly villous along the ventral suture, slightly stipitate —with a persistent marcescent calyx at the base—. Seeds 1-3, c. 3 mm, ovoid and compressed, brown, smooth.
Flowering:
June to July.
Fruiting:
July to August.
Habitat:
Cleared forests and thickets, on siliceous substrates. Around 1,100 m altitude.
Distribution:
Algerian endemic, very scarce, from the Tiaret mountains (Sidi Khaled depression).
Observations:
At the beginning of the 20th century (1919, 1921) Alphonce Faure collected what appeared to be a new species of the genus Adenocarpus, with small leaves, glabrescent, and umbelliform inflorescences, almost always terminal, in the vicinity of Tiaret (Algeria). In 1921 René Maire described it and named it, in honor of his collector, A. faurei. It was never seen in other parts for what was considered a very localized endemism of the forests and bushes of that area. In the second half of the 20th century, other researchers looked for it here and in other nearby areas, without success.
Due to the rarity of the species, it was protected in 1993 (Decree 93-285 of November 21), protection that was renewed in 2012 (Executive Decree 12-03 of January 4). But it already seemed to be too late. Much of the wooded and semi-wooded areas of Tiaret were deforested, cultivated and urbanized in the second half of the 20th century and continue to be so in the 21st.
For 5 consecutive years (2012-2017), Miara et al. (2018) have systematically studied the forest vegetation around Tiaret (Massif of Guesul), distributing the study area in grids of 1 km2. They have not found the species and, following the IUCN criteria, they consider it extinct. They determine that the main causes of extinction have been increasing urbanization and the cultivation of former wooded areas.
Conservation status:
Extremely rare species with a very limited area (about 10 km2) that has not been seen in more than 80 years. It is currently considered extinct.