Laurus azorica (Seub.) J. Franco
Persea azorica Seub.
Eng.: Bay leaf tree, bay tree, laurel. Spa.: Laurel, loro. Fre.: Laurier sauce, laurier d’Apollon. Ara.: Sshager el ghar, chejrate sidna-moussa, chajarat sidna moussa, errand, rend, round, habb r’ar (fruto). Tam.: Taselt.
Small, evergreen, dioecious tree, up to 10 m high (up to 20 in optimal situations), with dense foliage and irregular appearance. The trunk is more or less straight, with smooth, thin and greyish to blackish bark. Erect, robust branches. Young twigs densely villous, with numerous yellowish, ferruginous hairs. Leaves up to 17 x 8 cm, somewhat coriaceous, suborbicular (in the High Atlas Maire described the f. rotundifolia which we were able to verify) to lanceolate, hirsute-tomentose when young, then glabrescent, with the margin entire and slightly wavy, dark green on the adaxial surface and somewhat glaucous on the underside; they grow opposite on a short pedicel (0.5-1.5 cm). The male flowers are grouped in a kind of umbel in the axil of the leaves, they are formed by 4 oblong petaloid pieces (3-4.5 × 1.5-2 mm), yellowish-white in color, with 16-20 stamens . The female flowers are very similar, but instead of the stamens they have 4 sterile filaments around a greenish sub-sesile ovary. The fruit (10-20 mm) is a ovoid, fleshy berry, black.
Flowering:
April.
Fruiting:
September to October.
Habitat:
Forests, bushes, rocks and riverbanks in a bioclimate from subhumid to hyperhumid or, when drier, next to watercourses and other areas with relatively high edaphic humidity.
Distribution:
Archipelagos of the Canary Islands, Madeira and Azores. In Morocco, in the central-western High Atlas (El Ksiba, Beni Mellal, Jebel Tazerkunt, Jebel Rhnim) and in the Western Anti-Atlas (rocky cliffs of the Anezi river, E of Tiznit, and further south in Addar) survive small relict populations, in different ecological conditions.
Observations:
In 2002 the populations of the Canary Islands and Madeira were separated as L. novocanariensis Rivas Mart., Lousã, Fern. Prieto, E. Días, J.C. Costa & C. Aguiar (L. canariensis Webb & Berthel., Non Wild.), So it would be logical to think that, due to geographical proximity, the identity of the Moroccan plants should be taken to this last taxon. However, a more recent genetic revision (Rodríguez-Sánchez et al. 2009) resolved that the Macaronesian populations and those of the S of Morocco should all be assigned to L. azorica. Until their discovery in S of Morocco, these species were considered endemic to the laurel forest, a form of tropical forest that covered the Mediterranean region during the Tertiary, of which currently only a few relict masses survive on the Macaronesian islands. In the High Atlas, this tree lives in small calcareous cliffs among the Quercus rotundifolia forests, always in N and W facing slopes, between 1600-2000 m of altitude. In the Anti-Atlas it also lives sheltered in rocky cliffs with difficult access, in which Dracaena draco subsp ajdal also appear, in the southern facing slopes, and Q. rotundifolia, in the northern facing slopes. These small populations constitute the last continental vestiges of the species and therefore have an extraordinary genetic and biogeographic value.
Conservation status:
L. azorica is considered at a global level as Near Threatened (NT) (World Conservation Monitoring Center, 1998). However, the populations of the High Atlas and Anti Atlas have not yet been sufficiently studied, they are very scarce and are threatened by human use. Their protection should be maximum.