Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud.
Incl. Osyris quadripartita Salzm. ex Decne.
Eng.: Bark bush, rock tannin-bush. Spa.: Bayón. Fre.: Rouvet. Ara.: Madjad, bu lila, marghata.
Evergreen shrub or small tree, dioecious, up to 4 m in height, upright in habit, very branched, not broom-like, with trunk up to 10 cm in diameter. Brownish bark, fissured. Branches striated longitudinally, the older ones brown-greyish, young ones greenish, glabrous. Leaves (15-45 × 3-16 mm), lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, acute, mucronate, attenuate at the base, entire, subcoriaceous, glaucous, glabrous, sessile, alternate, persistent. Male inflorescence in axillary cymes 0.8-4 cm, with 5-15 flowers. Female inflorescences shorter, 2-3 flowers, often solitary. Male flowers with very short receptacle (1.5-2.5 mm), greenish; female flowers with longer receptacle, campanulate-tubiform (3-5 mm); both have 3 tepals (rarely 4) oval-triangular, 1.2-1.5 mm, green outside and yellow inside. Stamens 3, yellowish. Quite often there are tetramerous flowers. Fruit a globose drupe, 6-10 mm, orange in colour. Seed with smooth surface, whitish.
Flowering:
March to August, female flowers almost all year round.
Fruiting:
May to October.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets of Mediterranean character, in all types of soils (including coastal dunes) in semiarid to humid climate, thermomediterranean and inframediterranean floors. Up to about 2,000 m in altitude.
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean, Macaronesia and SE Africa (from Sudan and Eritrea up to South Africa). In North Africa it is a rare species, but well distributed across the Mediterranean plains and mountains of Morocco and northern Algeria (western Tellian Atlas and more rarely in the Saharan Atlas —Jebel Beni Smir—). Towards the S, along the Atlantic coast, it reaches almost to Cape Bojador.
Observations:
Both North African species of the genus are generalist hemiparasites, therefore taking advantage of the roots of trees from different genera (Juniperus, Tetraclinis, Quercus, Tamarix, Pistacia, Olea, Argania, Ficus, etc.) and even shrubs (Juniperus, Nerium) and perennial plants (Scirpus, Artemisia, etc.).
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.