Withania frutescens (L.) Pauquy
Atropa frutescens L.
Spa.: Oroval mediterráneo, campanillera, paternostrera. Fre.: Withania frutescent. Ara.: Bennur, chajrat lahbila, ali amellal. Tam.: Tilremet, irremt, tizrhar, tirrhar, tiremt, terrurnt, tinnert, timia.
Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 2(3) m in height, highly ramose, with tortuous stems and branches. Bark soft, suberose, with deep longitudinal grooves, light grey. Branchlets whitish, younger branchlets green. Leaves (1-8 × 0.8-9 cm) alternate, rarely opposite, ovate or suborbicular, sometimes heart-shaped, generally obtuse, with rounded or heart-shaped base, entire margin, coriaceous, glabrescent, younger leaves with thick whitish dusting (pruina), green on both sides. Flowers (8-16 mm long) solitary, in pairs or rarely ternate, axillary, with flexible peduncle that makes them to be usually facing downwards. Calyx green, campanulate, 0.4-0.6 mm, ending in 5 triangular lobes, with apex turned slightly backwards. Corolla yellowish-green, with very short hairs, tubular-campanulate divided towards the middle into 5 lobes, longly triangular, with the apex turned slightly backwards. Stamens 5, unequal, included in the corolla tube. Fruit a globose berry (6-8 mm), green at first and then red or blackish, surrounded, except at the top, by the persistent calyx that has been widened so that it almost surrounds the fruit without touching it.
Flowering:
Throughout the whole year.
Fruiting:
Almost at any time of the year. In the same locality there can be flowers and mature fruits at the same time.
Habitat:
Cleared forests and thermophilic thickets in coastal and subcoastal regions. From semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on inframediterranean and thermomediterranean floors. Since it is not grazed by herbivores, pressure from livestock does not seem to affect this species. Even when herds devastate the vegetation of some slopes, this species remains relatively intact.
Distribution:
Western area of the Mediterranean region (semiarid SE of the Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands, eastern Canary Islands and NW Africa). It is common in coastal and subcoastal areas of western Algeria and almost throughout Morocco, except in the Saharan areas. Its presence in Tunisia seems 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. 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).