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Maytenus senegalensis (Lam.) Exell

Gymnosporia senegalensis (Lam.) Loes., Celastrus senegalensis Lam., C. europaeus Boiss., C. montanus Roth., C. saharae Battand., C. coriaceus Guill. & Perr., Catha montana (Roth.) G. Don, Catha europaea (Boiss.) Boiss.

Eng.: Red spike thorn.   Spa.: Arto, espino cambrón.   Fre.: Fusain du Sénégal.   Ara.: Bu khlal, bukhal, (Egypt): daballab.   Tam.: Assana.

Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 4 m in height, but usually not exceeding 2 m, very ramose and spiny, with intricate flexuous branching. Stems and main branches often tortuous. Bark greyish-brown, smooth, ashen and highly fissured. Young branchlets greenish-grey, glabrous. Leaves and flowers are often born in the same fascicle on the wood of old stems and branches. Leaves persistent (10-40 × 2-7(10) mm), spatulate to obovate-oblong, obtuse, attenuate at the base, crenate margin, sometimes with small spines on the teeth, rarely subentire, subcoriaceous or coriaceous, glabrous, green or glaucous, alternate on branchlets or grouped in short fascicles, with short, green or red petiole. Inflorescences in axillary cymes, shortly pedunculate, with 3-12 flowers. Flowers pentamerous, greenish-whitish, with very short pedicels (1.5-6 mm) and petals opened in star-shape, flattened (3-6 mm diameter). Calyx lobes about 2 mm, ovate, obtuse, greenish with scarious margin. Corolla petals 2-3 mm, oblong, emarginate, white. Stamens half the length of the petals, opened in star-shape, born on a green 5-lobed nectariferous disc. Fruit a capsule, non-fleshy, 3-5 mm, bilocular or unilocular through abortion, subglobose and acuminate, with 2-seeded locules not well differentiated. The capsule is first green, then red and finally blackish, dehiscent in 2 valves. Seeds ovoid-flattened, 3-4 mm, red-brown, shiny, with a cupuliform aryl with an irregular margin.

Flowering:

April to September, although flowers can be seen throughout the year. In the Sahara flowering may occur after rainfall.

 

Fruiting:

About 3-5 months after Flowering.

Habitat:

In very diverse terrains and bioclimates, due to its wide distribution across the Old World, but it always grows in dry climates and even deserts.

Distribution:

SE Spain and much of Africa and Asia, reaching India and Bangladesh. In North Africa it is widely distributed in southern Sahara, massifs of central and western Sahara, reaching towards the N to the Mediterranean in Morocco.

Observations:

Toxic plant due to the stimulant alkaloids it contains. The Betic-Rif populations, and in general all those populations in the Atlas systems, with broader leaves, belong to the subsp. europaea (Boiss.) Güemes & M.B.Crespo. In Mediterranean areas it forms spiny thickets in areas near the coast, preferably on stony ground. In the northern regions of Morocco and Algeria.The Saharan populations belong to the subsp. senegalensis, less spiny, sometimes even unarmed, with trilocular capsules and linear-oblong leaves, subentire, not rounded at the apex. This subspecies is widely distributed in central and southern Africa, reaching South Africa. In North Africa, it grows in central and southern Sahara, reaching towards the N up to southern Morocco and Egypt.

Conservation status:

A rare but widely distributed species. It is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) it is listed as “Vulnerable”.

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