Lonicera arborea Boiss.
Eng.: Honeysuckle tree. Spa.: Cerecillo blanco. Fre.: Chèvrefeuille. Ara.: sembula, nouarat aam, busruder, jauher d-dar. Tam.: Isembel.
Shrub or small tree, deciduous, hermaphrodite, up to 10 m in height, not climbing or sarmentose. Main trunk and old branches tortuous, with greyish-brown bark, fissured longitudinally. Young branchlets greenish-reddish, slightly villous. Leaves (3-8 × 2-6 cm) opposite, from ovate to elliptical, with subacute or rounded apex and entire margin, green and glabrous on the upper side, lighter and with greyish pubescence on the underside. Petiole short (1-3 mm), usually almost sessile. Flowers borne in pairs on the axils of the leaves, almost sessile, with a single and very short peduncle. Ovary ovoid crowned by a minute calyx with 5 small subacute lobes. Corolla elongated, tubular-campanulate (1.2-2.5 cm), irregular, with 2 very different lips: lower lip is a single lobe and upper lip is divided into 4. Corolla tube and lips are snowy white. Stamens 5. Style and stamens very exserted from the corolla tube. Fruit a greenish berry that turns whitish-yellowish when mature.
Flowering:
May to July.
Fruiting:
August to September.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets on highly varied terrains, mainly calcareous, at high altitude (1,500-2,300 m). From subhumid to humid bioclimate, on mainly mesomediterranean and supramediterranean floors, in areas with frequent winter snow.
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean. In North Africa in general it is very rare, although locally it may become common. In Morocco: western Rif, Middle Atlas and High Atlas. In Algeria: Djurdjura and the Aures Massifs.
Observations:
A very similar species, so much so that initially it was treated as a subspecies of L. arborea, is L. kabylica (Batt.) Rehder (L. arborea var. kabylica Batt.). Smaller shrub (1-2 m), with lanceolate leaves (10-15 × 5-10 mm), glabrous on both sides and ovaries so close together that they are semifused. Endemic species to the most fresh and humid mountains of Kabylia, generally among cedar, holm and Portuguese oak forests.
Conservation status:
Fairly rare species with small distribution areas, especially L. kabylica, which is very rare and has a very small area. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Algeria L. kabylica is included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).