Adenocarpus decorticans Boiss.
A. hispanicus auct. Rif, A. bacquei sensu Pau non Batt. & Pit., A. speciosus Pomel
Eng.: Silver broom. Spa.: Rascavieja, codeso. Fre.: Adénocarpe. Ara.: Urziz, auzzir, agultín.
Shrub, up to 3 m in height, evergreen, hermaphrodite, that in favourable conditions can become a small tree reaching up to 5(7) m, very ramose, branching upright or extended-erect, with very dense foliage, green-greyish. Trunk thick, sometimes well defined, with reddish-brown or yellowish bark that peels off into longitudinal strips, as in the older branches. Branchlets densely covered with silky-whitish hairs. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, with subequal leaflets 7-20 × 1-2(3) mm, linear or linear-lanceolate, but always linear in appearance due to the margins being inrolled upwards, acute, slightly attenuated at the base, sessile, glabrescent, green-greyish on the upper side, and villous-silky and green on the underside. Inflorescence in very dense terminal racemes (6-30 flowers) and long (up to 12 cm), with villous peduncle and pedicels. Calyx with campanulate tube 3-3.5 mm, bilabiate, villous-silky, not glandular; the upper lip divided up to the base into 2 laciniae ovate-lanceolate and longly acuminate; the lower lip slightly longer divided up to halfway into 3 linear subulate teeth. Corolla papilionoid, yellow, with a pubescent standard, silky on the dorsal side; wings slightly shorter, glabrous, and keel the same length as the standard, slightly pubescent at the base. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Pod 2-6.5 × 0.6-1 cm, linear-oblong, compressed, covered with red to blackish glandular tubercles, dehiscent. Seeds 2-8, ovoid, compressed, brownish and smooth.
Flowering:
May to June.
Fruiting:
July to August.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets of mid-mountain (1,000-2,000 m), in subhumid and humid bioclimate, on mesomediterranean and supramediterranean floors. It seems to prefer acid soils therefore growing in heaths in the areas of the cork oak (Quercus suber) or Q. pyrenaica forests.
Distribution:
Betic-Rif endemic that reaches western Algeria. In North Africa it grows in Morocco (central and western Rif, the Jebel Tazekka, mountains of Beni-Snassen) and Algeria (Tlemcen mountains).
Conservation status:
A relatively common and widely distributed species, considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
