Globularia alypum L.
Eng.: Crown friar, shrubby globularia. Spa.: Coronilla de fraile, coronilla de rey, coronilla real. Fre.: Globulaire buissonnante. Ara.: Chebra, chelgha, zrigua, zerga, zriga, hallab erua, (Egypt): aynun. Tam.: Taselrha, tasselgha. Tamahaq: Tidi-n-tenet, tidé-n-tenet.
Subshrub or shrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 0.8(1.2) m in height, slightly ramose and erect. Stems and old branches tortuous, with greyish-brown bark, smooth and shiny; the older stems slightly fissured. Young branches very upright, vertical, angular, green. Leaves (1-3.5 × 0.3-1 cm) from obovate-lanceolate to spatulate, acute or obtuse, sometimes ending in 3 points, cuneate at the base, with entire margin, glabrous, green on the upper side, glaucous on the underside, coriaceous, petiolate. They grow alternately along young branches, or in groups on old branches. Inflorescence in terminal subglobose capitula, with numerous ovate bracts. Flowers very small and numerous. Calyx tubular, with 5 teeth, linear, longer than the tube. Corolla bluish, sometimes a very deep blue, bilabiate, with a short and entire upper lip, and an elongated lower lip divided at the end into 3 small lobules. Stamens 4, unequal, very exserted from the corolla tube. Fruit a very small achene included in the persistent calyx. 2n = 16.
Flowering:
Variable, depending on the area and rainfall, but usually in autumn-winter, sometimes in spring.
Fruiting:
1-2 months after flowering.
Habitat:
Open forests, thickets and rocky terrain, usually in carbonate soils. From semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on inframediterranean to mesomediterranean floors, with mild winters and without heavy frosts.
Distribution:
Mediterranean Region. In North Africa it is a widespread species along the Mediterranean, reaching the northern Sahara to the S.
Observations:
A very similar species is G. arabica Jaub. & Spach (G. alypum var. vesceritensis Batt., G. eriocephala Pomel) (Ara.: Handaqouq, zorreiqa. Tamahaq: Tidé-n-tenet), which differs essentially by its hispid capitula, with whitish lanate hairs. Its ecology and distribution are also different because it grows in desert areas: Saharan Atlas, northern Sahara, mountains of the central Sahara and desert areas of N and E of Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula.
Conservation status:
G. alypum can become fairly common locally, G. arabica is rarer. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, G. alypum is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Chapuis, 2014).