Lepidium subulatum L.
L. lineare DC.
Spa.: Boja, hierba de las pecas. Fre.: Passerage.
Shrub, small, up to 60 cm in height, with straight stems, with fissured and scaly brown bark. It presents foliar dimorphism, with leaves of the fertile stems very narrow and ending in a tip (linear-subulate), while on sterile stems the leaves are wider and obtuse. Inflorescence in a rather narrow elongated panicle which becomes corymbiform during anthesis, very dense and showy during flowering, although the flowers are tiny. Sepals 1-1.2 mm long, ovate-elliptic, with whitish margin. Petals white, c. 2 mm long. Fruits also small (2.5 × 2 mm), ovate and with small wings. Seeds small, reddish brown, with a mucilaginous coating when wet, which facilitates adhesion to the gypsum crust.
Flowering:
April to May.
Fruiting:
June to July.
Habitat:
Thickets on gypsum soils and subtidal sandy areas and sandy steppes.
Distribution:
Iberian-Magrebi endemism. Eastern half of Spain (exclusively on gypsum), Morocco (eastern high plateaux and Saharan Atlas) and Algeria (littoral area of Oran, drier areas of the Tellian Atlas, high plateaux, central-western Saharan Atlas, northern Sahara).
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. 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 Vulnerable (VU).
