Juniperus turbinata Guss.
J. phoenicea L. subsp. turbinata (Guss.) Nyman., J. phoenicea L. auct. pl., J. lycia L.
Eng.: Phoenician juniper. Spa.: Sabina negral. Fre.: Genévrier rouge. Ara.: Araar, arhar, al araar al hor, amellezi, kayzo, badar, djineda, afess. Tam.: Zimeba, aïfs.
Evergreen shrub or tree, monoecious, up to 8 m in height, ovoid-conical shape, fastigiate, trunk generally straight, sometimes tortuous or even branched from the base or prostrate under unfavorable conditions. Bark ashen or reddish-brown, fibrous, that detaches into narrow strips. Branches reddish-brown in colour. Branchlets very thin with a caudate apex (i.e. an apex which is extended exceeding the immediate lateral branchlets), entirely covered with small squamiform leaves (0.7-1mm), ovate-rhomboid, very imbricate, from acute to clearly acuminate, with a narrow scarious margin. In younger individuals, the leaves are acicular, similar to J. oxycedrus, with two longitudinal whitish bands, 5-14 × 0.5-1 mm. Male cones born solitary at the end of the branchlets. Female cones or galbuli born laterally, globose or ovoid (8-15 mm), dark red at maturity, ± without waxy powder, with up to 7 seeds.
Flowering:
January to May.
Fruiting:
Throughout the second year.
Habitat:
Grows on very diverse ± dry soils, from sea level, colonizing the coastal dunes, reaching the mountainous interior in North Africa to about 2,400 m in the High Atlas.
Distribution:
Mediterranean and Macaronesian regions. In North Africa it extends from Morocco to Libya and from the Mediterranean to the Sahara, with a small population more (with some hundred-year-old trees) in 3 mountains of NE Sinai (Gebel Maghara, Gebel Yi’allaq and Gebel Halal). These populations are the last living remnants of the Mediterranean forests that covered much of the Sinai in ancient times.
Observations:
Taxon very close to J. phoenicea, not present in the region according to the latest research, from which it differs basically by the apex of the branches, the leaves and the galbuli. J. phoenicea has branches with the apex barely exceeding immediate lateral branchlets, the leaves are squamiform, ± obtuse and the globose galbuli smaller, 8-10 mm. Frequently it has been cited as J. phoenicea subsp. turbinata (Guss.) Nyman referring to the coastal communities, as well as J. phoenicea subsp. phoenicea for the inland populations.
Conservation status:
Species relatively common in inland areas but increasingly rarer and more threatened in the coastal regions by the growing urbanization for tourism purposes. In the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed at a global level as Near Threatened (NT) (Farjon, 2013). In Algeria it is included, as J. phoenicea, in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).