Anthyllis henoniana Coss. ex Batt.
A. sericea subsp. henoniana (Coss. Ex Batt.) Maire, A. subsimplex Pomel
Eng.: Saharian albaida, Saharian vetch. Spa.: Albaida sahariana. Fre.: Anthyllide soyeuse. Ara.: Ghezzîr, ghezdir, kesdir, qecedir, rgâ.
Subshrub, up to 0.6(1) m in height, hermaphrodite, evergreen, very ramose, with stems and branches straight or slightly tortuous, ± upright, strongly woody. Stems and branches with greyish-brown bark that peels off into longitudinal strips. Young branches woody, brown-purplish, dark, but covered with a dense indumentum of white hairs that makes them appear greyish-whitish. Leaves distichous, grouped at the base of young branches, with 1(3) unequal leaflets, sessile or subsessile, the terminal leaflet somewhat larger, lanceolate; the lateral leaflets obovate-ellipsoid, entire; all leaflets are subacute or obtuse, ± attenuated at the base, slightly fleshy, pubescent and greyish-silvery on both sides. Inflorescence in axillary sessile glomeruli, sparse, with 3-10 pedicellate flowers, with villous pedicels. Calyx 8-11 mm, tubular, divided into 5 subequal teeth in its upper third, brown-purple, covered with hairs 3 mm or more, white, upright. Corolla 9-11 mm, papilionoid, with standard light or dark pink, with purple venation, much longer than the wings and the keel; keel usually yellowish. Androecium submonadelphous. Ovary cylindrical, with 7-11 rudimentary seminal primordia, style arched. Pod 4-5 × 2-2.5 mm, ovoid, glabrous, included in the persistent calyx with 1-2 seeds. Seeds c. 2.5 × 2 mm, subreniform, smooth or finely punctate.
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
May to June.
Habitat:
Thickets and semidesert and desert steppes.
Distribution:
Endemic to North Africa, but absent from Morocco. It grows in the northern Saharan area of Algeria (east of M’zab, Ghardaïa), in nearly all the southern half of Tunisia and NW Libya.
Conservation status:
A rare but widely distributed species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Tunisia it is included (as H. sericea) 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).