Vella mairei Humbert
Pseudocytisus mairei (Humhert) Maire
Spa.: Piorno del Atlas.
Small shrub, cushion-shaped, up to 1 m in height and 1.5 m in diameter, with dense and intricate branches ending in strongly spiny apices. Stems and main branches with greyish bark, smooth, slightly fissured in thicker and older parts, with numerous scars of fallen leaves. Branchlets greyish or greenish-white, with few rigid hairs. Leaves (up to 5 × 3 cm) alternate, obovate-oblong —sometimes spatulate—, obtuse, entire or with some very pronounced lobes, slightly fleshy, green on both sides, glabrous or with few scattered hairs. Flowers in small short terminal racemes, of 4-6 flowers. Calyx with 4 sepals, linear-oblong, ± acute, glabrous, greenish-yellowish, 10 mm long. Corolla with 4 petals, obovate and longly unguiculate, 12-15 mm long, very intense yellow. Fruit a subsessile silicle 17-20 × 2-3 mm, with 2 parts or segments: lower part fertile, ellipsoid, dehiscent in 2 to short and convex valves, with some rigid hairs and visible veins; upper part (rostrum) sterile, linear-lanceolate, trinervate, glabrous, 3 times longer than the lower part. Seeds 2-4, contained in the lower part, obovate, smooth.
Flowering:
June to August.
Fruiting:
July to October.
Habitat:
Cushion-shaped thickets in high mountains (2,400-3,500 m) on calcareous substrates, forming very characteristic communities by the dominance of this and other hemispherical species with spiny branches. In semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on supramediterranean and oromediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Endemic to Morocco. High Atlas (from Erdouz Massif to the W, including Jebel Anremer, up to Jebel Ayachi and Maasker by E) and Middle Atlas (Guelb-er-Rahal mountain range and Bu-Nacer).
Observations:
Previously regarded as an ecological vicariant of V. spinosa (from the mountains of S of Spain), but the latter is diploid, whereas V. mairei is tetraploid. Recent phylogenetic studies show a greater relationship of V. spinosa with V. anremerica (also diploid). Based mainly on the glabrousness of the silicles, 2 varieties have been described.
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 Vulnerable (VU).