Phillyrea angustifolia L.
Eng.: Narrow-leaved mock privet. Spa.: Labiérnago, olivilla. Fre.: Filaire à feuilles étroites, alavert à feuilles étroites. Ara.: Qttem, qttam, qatum, derua, rbib uozemmur, imtutel, amtal, alzerua. Tam.: Tamtuala, ached, adura.
Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 3(4) m in height, erect, with long flexible branches. Main stem and old branches with smooth bark or slightly fissured on older specimens, greyish. Young branches always with smooth greyish bark; branches of the current year, greenish. Leaves (2-8 × 0.3-1.5 cm) linear or linear-lanceolate, opposite, entire, very rarely with some small teeth spaced apart, with acute apex, attenuated at the base, petiolate, somewhat coriaceous, glabrous, light green or dark green, always slightly lighter on the underside. Inflorescence in very short, axillary racemes. Flowers white, small, hermaphrodite. Calyx campanulate, greenish, with 4 shallow teeth. Corolla with short tube, opened in 4 obtuse lobes. Stamens 2, with large anthers in proportion to the filaments, which are very short. Ovary with short style and wide stigma with 2 lobules. Fruit an ovoid or globose drupe, with a small terminal beak, blueish-black. Seeds 1-2.
Flowering:
April to May.
Fruiting:
August to November.
Habitat:
Thermophilic forests and thickets in areas of mild climate, preferably in areas of cork oak or holm oak forests. From semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and lower mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean region. In North Africa it grows in the thermophilic humid and subhumid areas of the N, reaching in the S to the central High Atlas and the cooler and more humid mountains of the Saharan Atlas. It has been cited in NE Libya, but its presence here is doubtful.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.