Osyris alba L.
Eng.: Osyris. Spa.: Retama loca, guardalobos. Fre.: Rouvet blanc, osyris blanc. Ara.: Buhla, bulila, bu lila. Tam.: Tarettast, taferach. Tamahaq: Adaman.
Evergreen shrub, dioecious, up to 1.5 m in height, upright in habit, broom-like, sometimes climbing, reaching up to 3 m or more in height. Stems and older branches with greenish-brown bark, longitudinally striated. Branchlets numerous, erect, striated, green. Leaves (6-40 × 1.5-6 mm) alternate, linear or narrowly lanceolate, acute, attenuate at the base, subsessile, entire, subcoriaceous, green and glabrous on both sides, persistent or deciduous. Inflorescence in axillary cymes 0.8-3 cm long, with 3-10 flowers on male plants; in the female plants, solitary flower or rarely 2 or 3. Flowers greenish-yellow, with perianth ending in 3 yellow tepals, oval-triangular in shape, opened like a star. In male flowers the receptacle is very short (0.5-0.8 mm); in female flowers, it is longer, campanulate-tubiform (3-5 mm). Stamens 3, yellowish. Sometimes there are tetramerous flowers (4 tepals and 4 stamens). Fruit a globose drupe 5.5-7 mm, orange or reddish. Seed rough, whitish.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
May to August.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets, on many different substrates, from sea level up to 2,600 m, with semiarid to humid climate, inframediterranean to supramediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region and nearby areas of western Asia. In North Africa, although it is never abundant, it is widespread over almost the entire Mediterranean area, from the Atlantic to the eastern coasts of Tunisia, appearing to the E in another small area in Cyrenaica. Towards the S it reaches the northern Sahara, and then reappears in small populations along riverbeds of the upper parts of the central Saharan mountain ranges (Ahaggar and Tefedest). Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
Conservation status:
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.