Coronilla valentina L.
incl. C. glauca L.
Eng.: Shrubby crown vetch. Spa.: Coronilla. Fre.: Coronille glauque. Ara.: Felgi. Tam.: Tardjuant
Shrub, up to 1(1.5) m in height, hermaphrodite, erect, very ramose, with branches slightly tortuous. Main trunk and older branches with bark from greyish-brown to dark-brown. Young branches glabrous, greenish. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, with 4-6 pairs of subequal leaflets, obovate-spatulate, entire, with tip acute-rounded, rounded or emarginate, mucronate or not, attenuated towards the base, subsessile, glabrous and glaucescent on both sides. Inflorescence umbelliform, axillary, on peduncles longer than the subtending leaf, with 4-12 flowers. Calyx campanulate, greenish, with 5 small triangular teeth at the end (the upper 2 are fused), glabrous. Corolla 7-12 mm, papilionoid, yellow, with a claw or basal tail of the petals included in the calyx. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary cylindrical, dilated and coriaceous at the apex, glabrous, with style curved at right angle at the base. Pod lomentaceous, linear, cylindrical and pendant, with a clearly marked separation between segments. Seeds 1.7-2 × 3.5-4 mm, brownish, cylindrical or ovoid.
Flowering:
February to June.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Thickets and rocky outcrops, mainly on calcareous soils, in semiarid to humid bioclimate. In semiarid bioclimate, it grows along water courses and other wetlands. Thermophilic species which reaches its peak at 1,800 m in the Djurdjura Massif (central Tellian Atlas).
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa it is found on the coastal Mediterranean least, reaching towards the S to the western Anti-Atlas.
Observations:
In North Africa there are 4 recognised subspecies:C. valentina subsp. glauca (L.) Batt. (C. glauca L.) has very small linear stipules; widely distributed across the Mediterranean region, it is common in Morocco (from the Mediterranean coast to the Anti-Atlas —Jebel El Kest—), Algeria (eastern Tellian Atlas and Aures Massif), northern Tunisia and Libyan Mediterranean mountains. C. valentina subsp. pentaphylla (Desf.) Batt., has obovate stipules, small (4-8 × 3-7 mm); in grows in S of France and Italy, in North Africa it is found in Morocco reaching towards the S up to the High Atlas, in Algeria (Tellian Atlas) and very rare in Tunisia (only cited in the N —Mogods—). C. valentina subsp. valentina, has even larger stipules (10-15 × 15-20 mm), small leaflets (up to 1 cm) and small flowers (7-10 mm); it is found in Morocco (it has been cited at least in the N Atlantic area —Zerhoun, Zalagh, Beni Slimane— and in mountains of Debdou), in the mountains near Algiers and the NE area of the Tunisian Dorsal (Jebel Bargou, Jebel Ressas, Jebel Bu-Kornin, etc.). C. valentina subsp. speciosa (Hrabětová) Greuter & Burdet (C. speciosa Hrabětová), has very large stipules, larger leaflets (2 cm or more) and also large flowers (12-13 mm); it is endemic to Algeria (Tellian Atlas), from the mounts of Saida up to Constantine.
Conservation status:
A rare but widely distributed species, not considered threatened. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
it is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Contu, 2012).
