Genista acanthoclada DC. subsp. acanthoclada
Spa.: Aulaga, aliaga, genista. Fre.: Genêt. Ara.: Guendul.
Shrub or subshrub up to 1 m in height, spiny, hermaphrodite, highly branched, with erect stems and branches opposite, sparsely foliose. Stems and old branches with brown bark, fissured longitudinally, turning glabrous. Young branchlets green, longitudinally striated-ribbed, with 10-12 T-shaped ribs, sericeous along the ribs, ending in a spine. Leaves alternate or opposite, trifoliolate, with stipules, subsessile, with leaflets 5-10 × 1-3 mm, narrowly oblanceolate, attenuated at the base, acute, green, sericeous on both sides. Flowers usually solitary or in pairs, alternate or opposite at the end of young branches, shortly pedicellate, with pedicel up to 2 mm, sericeous. Calyx 2.5-5 mm, sparsely sericeous, deeply split into 2 lips almost as long as the tube, the upper lip bipartite into 2 triangular segments, and the lower lip tridentate. Corolla 6-10 mm, papilionoid, yellow, with standard ovate, obtuse at the apex, sericeous, larger than the wings and shorter than the keel. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary sericeous. Pod 8-9 mm, ovoid-acuminate, compressed, green at first and turning brown, sericeous, with 1-2 seeds, without an aril.
Flowering:
April to May.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Spiny thickets in areas close to the sea.
Distribution:
NE Libya (Cyrenaica), and eastern Mediterranean Region (Crete, Greece, and Turkey).
Observations:
The other recognised subspecies, G. acanthoclada
subsp. echinus (Spach) Vierh. (G. echinus Spach), is not known from North Africa, and is distributed across Turkey, some Aegean Islands and Syria-Lebanon. It differs from the former by its larger flowers, with standard 9-12 mm, as long or longer than the keel.
Conservation status:
A relatively common species, but with a small distribution area, especially in North Africa where its populations are regressing. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.