Ononis aragonensis Asso
Eng.: Restharrow. Spa.: Hierba pedreguera. Fre.: Bugrane d’Aragon.
Shrub up to 1.5 m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, evergreen, highly branched, intricate, often hemispherical. Stems and old branches tortuous, with brownish-grey bark, finally glabrous. Young branchlets greenish or whitish-tomentose, with hairs glanduliferous and eglandular. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, petiolate, with stipules partially fused to the petiole, leaflets 2-15(20) × 2-17 mm, coriaceous, obovate or suborbicular, denticulate; lateral leaflets sessile and central leaflet petiolulate, green, glabrous. Inflorescences racemiform, terminal, lax, with geminate flowers —rarely solitary or in groups of 3(4)—, pedicellate, at the axil of each bract; bracts without leaflets, ovate, persistent. Calyx (4.5)5-8 mm, villous, with glanduliferous and eglandular hairs, greenish, deeply split into 5 teeth, linear-lanceolate, unequal, longer than the tube. Corolla 11-17 mm, papilionoid, yellowish, with a glabrous standard, and a falcate keel. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary hairy and capitated stigma. Pod 4.5-6 mm, ± ovoid, puberulous-glandular, included in the calyx or slightly exserted, with 1-2 seeds. Seeds 2-2.5 mm, reniform, smooth, brown.
Flowering:
May to July.
Fruiting:
July to September.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops in medium and high altitude (1,300-2,500 m). In subhumid to humid bioclimate, on mesomediterranean to oromediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Endemic to SW Europe (France and Spain), and NW Africa (Morocco and Algeria). In North Africa it is rare, and appears very localised in Morocco (calcareous western Rif —Jebel Lakraa, Jebel Tazaot, etc.—, northern Middle Atlas —from Ain-Leuch and Azru up to the Bu-Iblan Massif —, High Atlas), and in the NE area of Algeria (Djurdjura Massif and Jebel Babor).
Observations:
A remarkably similar species is O. reuteri Boiss., that differs by the smaller size of the leaflets, 1.5-5(6) × 1.5-3.5(4.5) mm, and especially because the flowers are always solitary in the axils of the bracts of the inflorescence, which are caducous. It is an Iberian-Moroccan endemic, distributed across southern Spain (Grazalema and Ronda mountains) and in the African territory is limited to the western Rif.
Conservation status:
O. aragonensis is rare but widely distributed, whilst O. reuteri has a much smaller distribution range. In principle, neither species are considered threatened. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Algeria O. aragonensis is included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).