Hormathophylla spinosa (L.) P. Küpfer
Alyssum spinosum L., Ptilotrichum spinosum (L.) Boiss.
Eng.: Madwort. Esp.: Boja blanca, aliagueta. Ara.: Aguerma, bu derga. Tam.: Ifchich, ibohad, ifski-n-ulli, tucht.
Subshrub, spiny, hemispherical, highly branched from the base, that can reach up to 80 cm in height and 2 m basal diameter, although usually it is a hemisphere of 30-50 cm diameter. Branches divaricate, intricate, hardened and persistent for several years. Young stems and leaves covered with a dense velvety indumentum, of stellate hairs, dichotomously branched, with 25-35 radii. Floral stems numerous, rigid, zigzagging, with all secondary shoots transformed into short spines or erect secondary inflorescences; sterile branches never spiny. Leaves of floral stems oblong-linear, 5-10(15) × 1-2 mm, late caducous, borne on the axils of secondary branchlets transformed into spines or secondary flower racemes. Leaves of sterile branches larger, 8-18(24) × 1.5-4(7) mm, oblong-lanceolate, with leaf blade slightly attenuated in the base. Flowers in corymbiform racemes, pauciflorous, that become slightly longer (up to 2.3 cm) after flowering. Petals white or pink 3.5-6 × 1.3-2 mm. Ovary with 2 primordia per locule. Fruit a silicle, 3.5-6 × 2.5-3.5 mm, orbicular-elliptic, patent, with asymmetric locules, glabrous valves, finely reticulated, with upright style 1-1.5 mm. Seeds 1(2) in the upper locule and 0-1(2) in the lower locule, 2.1 × 1.7 mm, elliptic, not mucilaginous, with very narrow wing.
Flowering:
April to July.
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
It grows in high mountains, chalky or siliceous, from 1,800 to 3,800 m, in all aspects, where it is a common species that sometimes becomes dominant in cushion-spiny habitats on oromediterranean floors (or supramediterranean floors after deforestation).
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean. In North Africa in Morocco, in the western Rif, Middle Atlas, High Atlas (from Seksaua to the mountains of Aït Mesruch) and the Sirwa Massif. Also known in Algeria, but is rarer; summit of Jebel Haïzer (Djurdjura) and Mts. Babor and Tababort.
Conservation status:
Locally common species but with a small distribution area. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC).