Acer monspessulanum L. subsp. monspessulanum
Eng.: Montpellier maple. Spa.: Arce, ázar, acirón. Fre.: Érable de Montpellier. Ara.: Keïkab, keikob, rquikeb, asfendan, siqmur. Tam.: Arich, tfifia.
Small deciduous tree, frequently a shrub, polygamous, up to 8(15) m in height. Regular in shape, with globose crown. Trunk generally well defined, straight, sometimes slightly tortuous, with greyish-brown bark, fissured-scaly. Young trunks and branches with smooth bark, greyish or greyish-brown. Young branchlets flexuous, greenish-brown or reddish-brown. Leaves 1.5-4.5 × 2-6.3 cm, opposite, palmate, trilobed, occasionally 5-lobed, with 2 small basal lobes, coriaceous; glabrous, green, lustrous on the upper side and with hairs only on the vein axils on the underside, glaucous, matt. Lobes well defined, equal or subequal, ovate, with generally an entire margin, sometimes with small and few teeth, obtuse, rarely acute, with sinuses reaching halfway of the leaf, forming a right or slightly acute angle. Petiole long, widening at the base, glabrous or with scarce hairs. Inflorescence corymbiform, straight at first and then progressively pendulous, sparsely hairy. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual (male), greenish-yellowish, on long peduncles. Calyx with 5 sepals, free. Corolla with 5 petals, arranged alternately with sepals, fused to a fleshy disk, like the stamens. Stamens 8, exserted in male flowers. Fruit a paired samara, with glabrous seminiferous area, with wings tapered at the base, straight or curved inwards (converging), sometimes overlapping, forming an acute angle of 20-60º.
Flowering:
April to June.
Fruiting:
July to October.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets in cool and humid places, often within rupicolous environments in mountainous areas (800-2,600 m). From dry to humid bioclimate, and on mesomediterranean and supramediterranean floors. This is the North African maple that best tolerates drought, and therefore the most widespread and abundant; it is indifferent to the substrate, but it prefers limestone soils.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region and Asia Minor. In North Africa it appears dispersed through the High Atlas (reaching up to 2,600 m above sea level), Middle Atlas, central-western Rif, mountains of eastern Morocco (Debdou), Tellian Atlas, less dry massifs of the Saharan Atlas and some mountains in the Tunisian Dorsal (Jebel Zaghouan, Bargou and Serdj).
Observations:
A. monspessulanum belongs to a complex group of taxa, most of them considered subspecies. The greatest variability is in the Caucasus and SW Asia. North African populations, like the rest of the western Mediterranean, must be ascribed to the type subspecies (subsp. monspessulanum). References to A. monspessulanum subsp. martini (Jord.) P.Fourn. in Algeria (Djurdjura, Teniet-el-Had) must be interpreted as A. × martini Jord., a hybrid between A. monspessulanum and A. opalus s.l., relatively frequent in localities where both parental species are found, presenting intermediate characteristics in the leaves and fruits, such as the presence of mainly 5-lobed leaves, with dentate lobes, the 2 basal lobes very reduced.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Crowley et al., 2018). In Tunisia it is included in its List of native species that are rare and threatened with extinction (Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, 19-July-2006). In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC).