Euphorbia regis-jubae J. Gay
E. obtusifolia subsp. regis-jubae Maire, E. lamarckii subsp. regis-jubae (J.Gay) Oudejans
Eng.: Spurge. Spa.: Tabaiba amarga. Fre.: Euphorbe du roi Juba. Ara.: Afdir, lfernan. Tam.: Talalt.
Monoecious shrub, up to 2 m in height, with a straight trunk, short, first smooth, later with abundant extended-erect branching, divaricate or erect, giving it the overall appearance of a minute umbrella-like tree. Bark whitish-pruinose, smooth, slightly fissured at the base of the trunk of older specimens. Young branchlets greenish. Leaves (15-70 × 7.3 mm) grouped at the end of the branchlets, linear or linear-spatulate, obtuse, with rounded or emarginate apex, entire margin, not undulated. Pleiochasium subsessile or with a short petiole, with 3-5 rays, bifurcated, simple, the same length or slightly longer than the pleiochasial bracts. Bracts like the leaves, but generally shorter and wider, yellowish. Dichasial bracts 5-15 mm, sessile, oval-oblong or suborbicular, yellowish. Cyathium 3-5 mm, with short peduncle, glabrous on the outside and downy on the inside, yellow; nectaries appendiculate, yellow. Fruit a subglobose capsule (4.5 × 6.5 mm) with pedicel 3-6 mm. Cocci well defined, glabrous, smooth or very finely punctate-papillose. Each coccus carries 1 seed (2.7-3 × 1.7-2 × 2-2.2 mm) oval-oblong, sometimes slightly compressed laterally, surface almost smooth or finely rugulose, brown in colour, ± dark, carunculate.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
In very diverse terrains (rocky, loamy, sandy, etc.), coastal and subcoastal in semiarid, arid or even hyperarid bioclimate (desert) but in the latter with considerable humidity due to the influence from the ocean.
Distribution:
Endemic to North Africa: continental Macaronesia and western Sahara. From Cape Bojador, in the S, to the subcoastal High Atlas, in the N, although isolated populations are scattered even further N up to the gorges of Cherrat River near Aïn Maidnet.
Conservation status:
Locally common species but of a restricted distribution. It is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Near Threatened (NT).