Genista hirsuta Vahl.
Spa.: Aulaga merina, tojo alfiletero. Fre.: Genêt. Ara.: Guendul.
Shrub, subshrub or suffrutex up to 0.8(1.5) m in height, very spiny, hermaphrodite, highly branched or cushion-shaped, with erect stems, only slightly foliose. Stems and old branches with brown bark, fissured longitudinally, turning glabrous. Young branchlets green, longitudinally striated-ribbed, with 7-10 ribs, villous, sterile branchlets transformed into spines. Spines simple, trifid or pinnate, straight or somewhat flexuous, green, 1-2 cm. Leaves alternate, unifoliolate, without stipules, sessile, with leaflets 5-14 × 1.5-4.5 mm, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, attenuated at the base, acute at the apex, green, villous on the upper side and glabrous on the underside. Inflorescences racemiform, terminal, dense, with a hirsute axis, and pedicellate flowers, with pedicel up to 1.5 mm, hirsute. Calyx 4-14 mm, ± villous, deeply split into 2 lips, the upper lip shorter than the lower lip and deeply bipartite into 2 segments linear-lanceolate, ciliate, and the lower lip tridentate, with linear-lanceolate teeth. Corolla 7-13.5 mm, papilionoid, yellow, marcescent, with standard ovate, acute at the apex, villous or sericeous on the dorsal side, subequal to the wings and shorter than the keel. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary sericeous and stigma oblique and introrse. Pod 5-7 × 2.3-4 mm, ovoid or pyriform, somewhat compressed, brown or blackish, hairy, with 1 seed. Seeds 1.8-2.5 mm, ovoid or subglobose, smooth, greenish-brown or black, without an aril.
Flowering:
April to June.
Fruiting:
May to August.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops, from sea level to 1,600 m in altitude, in areas of semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and supramediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Central, western and southern areas of the Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands, northern Morocco and NW Algeria.
Observations:
3 subspecies are recognised, of which only 2 grow in North Africa (subsp. hirsuta is endemic to the Iberian Peninsula). G. hirsuta subsp. lanuginosa (Spach) Nyman (G. lanuginosa Spach) is characterised by having a bract towards the midpoint of the floral pedicel, and flowers with calyx usually 9-14 mm; it is distributed across southern Spain and the central Rif in Morocco. G. hirsuta subsp. erioclada (Spach) Raynaud [G. erioclada Spach, G. hirsuta var. atlantica (Spach) Raynaud] has a bract inserted towards the base of the floral pedicel, and flowers with smaller calyx, 5-7 mm long; it is known from the Balearic Islands and North Africa, particularly across the mountains of NE Morocco (eastern Rif, Beni-Snassen, Debdou, Jerada, etc.), and in NW Algeria (western Tellian Atlas —Oran, Tlemcen, Mascara, etc.). There are a further 3 taxa that are very similar, also hirsute and shrubby, but that hardly exceed 0.5 m in height. G. tournefortii subsp. jahandiezii (Batt.) Talavera & P.E.Gibbs (G. jahandiezii Batt.) has, unlike the above, very thin and weak, branched spines; endemic to Morocco where it grows in humid forests of medium and high altitude (1,000-2,200 m in altitude) on the central-western Rif and the Middle Atlas. G. ulicina Spach, with characteristic yellow-orange flowers, is an endemic to the forests and humid thickets of NE Algeria (Kabylia) and NW Tunisia (Krumiria and Mogods). G. spinulosa Pomel, unlike the previous, has trifoliolate leaves and no spines, but it has spinescent stipules and calyx teeth; endemic to Algeria, across the NW Tellian Atlas, littoral and sublittoral mountains E of Mostaganem (Dahra, Beni Zeroual, Medjahed, etc.).
Conservation status:
G. hirsuta is a relatively common and widely distributed species, however the other 3 taxa G. tournefortii subsp. jahandiezii, G. ulicina, and G. spinulosa have a much restricted distribution area, but in principle they do not seem threatened. Currently, none of the above taxa have been assessed at a global level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Algeria G. hirsuta subsp. erioclada and G. spinulosa are included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).