Ononis ramosissima Desf.
Eng.: Bush restharrow. Esp.: Garbancero, melosa, hierba melera, atrapamoscas. Fre.: Bugrane.
Shrub or suffrutex up to 0.6 m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, evergreen, highly branched from the base, erect, very viscous. Stems and old branches with brownish bark, younger ones green, with subsessile glands or puberulous-glanduliferous, and with eglandular hairs less than 0.4 mm. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate and leaves of the floral part unifoliolate, petiolate, with stipules partially fused to the petiole, leaflets 2-15 × 1.5-7 mm, herbaceous, linear-elliptic to cuneate or obovate, dentate, green, glabrescent or puberulous-glanduliferous. Inflorescences axillary, although often grouped at the end of the stems, peduncle with an arista of 2-8 mm and 1 pedicellate flower. Calyx 4-6.5(8) mm, with sessile glands or puberulous-glanduliferous, often with longer eglandular hairs, green, split into 5 teeth 2.5-4.5 mm, lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 times longer than the tube. Corolla (7)9-16(18) mm, papilionoid, with a glabrous standard, yellow with purple veins, wings and keel yellow or yellowish-white, the keel falcate. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary hairy and capitated stigma. Pod 11-22 mm, pendulous, subcylindrical, hairy-glanduliferous, very exserted, with 2-8 seeds. Seeds 1.5-2 mm, subreniform, tuberculate, brown.
Flowering:
(January) April to June (December).
Fruiting:
May to December.
Habitat:
Thickets of fixed dunes and sandy coastal areas.
Distribution:
Widely distributed for almost the entire Mediterranean area, from Morocco to Libya.
Observations:
Other very similar species are listed below.
O. angustissima Lam. is a species with similar leaflets in size to O. ramosissima but narrower, usually linear or filiform, and longitudinally folded. It is extremely polymorphic, and several subspecies of it have been described, based mainly on variations in indumentum and stipules size relative to the length of the internodes. The type subspecies (O. angustissima Lam. subsp. angustissima) and O. angustissima subsp. longifolia Förther & Podlech, are restricted to the Canary Islands. The following subspecies do have representation in North Africa: O. angustissima subsp. falcata (Viv.) Murb. (O. falcata Viv.), distributed along the Aures Mountains and other areas NE of Algeria, N of Tunisia, and the coastal areas of Libya; O. angustissima subsp. polyclada Murb., in Morocco (Middle Atlas and High Atlas: Oujda, Ouarzazate and Errachidia), Algeria (Saharan Atlas, Tellian Atlas, Aures) and N of Tunisia; O. angustissima subsp. filifolia Murb., in NE of Algeria (Aures mountains and surroundings) and the central area of Tunisia, reaching, to the north, to the Cape Bon; and O. angustissima subsp. mauritii (Maire & Sennen) Förther & Podlech (O. mauritii Maire & Sennen), along coastal regions of Morocco (Nador) and Algeria (Tlemcen Province), very localised.
Plants with less narrow leaflets are grouped under the following 2 species: O. paralias Förther & Podlech, an endemic species to the coastal regions of SW Morocco (Agadir, Safi and Tarfaya) which apparently differs from O. angustissima by leaflets not being folded, and O . aurasiaca Förther & Podlech, a species restricted to a tiny area in NE Algeria (Batna and Biskra area).
Conservation status:
O. ramosissima and O. angustissima are common and widespread species, whereas O. paralias and O. aurasica are less common and with smaller distribution areas. Currently, none of these species have been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Algeria O. angustissima is included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).