Calicotome intermedia C. Presl
Calicotome infesta subsp. intermedia (C. Presl) Greuter, C. villosa subsp. intermedia (C. Presl) Quézel & Santa
Eng.: Thorny broom. Spa.: Jerguén, erguén, cambrón, cambrona. Fre.: Calicotome. Ara.: Gendul, dar chichaan. Tam.: Uzzu, azezu, agendal.
Shrub up to 1.5(2) m in height, spiny, hermaphrodite, deciduous, very ramose, sometimes intricate, with extended branches. Stems and old branches with greyish bark. Young branchlets with 13-16 longitudinal ribs in T-shape, greenish-greyish, densely adpressed-sericeous. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, without stipules, petiolate, with petiole 6-14 mm and leaflets 5-18 × 3.5-7.5 mm, obovate, obtuse, sometimes mucronate or emarginate at the apex, attenuated at the base, with entire margin, sericeous on both sides when young, then glabrescent on the upper side. Flowers usually in dense racemes, terminal, with a sharp main axis ressembling a spine; or in axillary glomeruli of 3-5 flowers, pedicellate, with sericeous petiole, with 3 bracteoles fused into a tripartite or trifid structure. Calyx 2.1-3.6 mm, subcylindrical, greenish-yellowish, sericeous. Corolla 14-16 mm, papilionoid, yellow, with ovate standard, wings subequal to the standard or longer, and shorter keel. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary and style sericeous. Pod 18-46 × 5-8 mm, oblong or linear-oblong, straight or slightly curved, compressed, wingless, green at first, then blackish when mature, dehiscent. Seeds 1-7, 3-3.8 mm, ovoid, compressed, yellowish-brown, smooth.
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Cleared forests and thickets, rocky areas, on calcareous or siliceous soils. In semiarid to subhumid environment. It cannot withstand frosts, and being a relatively thermophilic species it has an altitudinal range from sea level to 800(1,000) m in altitude.
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean region. Southern region of the Iberian Peninsula and continuously distributed across North Africa, from Morocco to NW Libya. There are also some small relict populations in the northern Sahara, such as those in Tunisia (Borj Burguiba, Borj Jenein) and Libya (Nalut).
Observations:
This is clearly a pyrophyte species that regrows from its base after fires. The denser thickets of this species occur in areas that have recently suffered fires.
Conservation status:
C. intermedia is relatively common and widely distributed. Currently, it have not been assessed at a global level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.