Prunus webbii (Spach) Vierh.
P. webbii (Spach) Fritsch, Amygdalus webbii Spach, A. salicifolia Boiss. & Balansa, A. trabutii A. Chev.
Eng.: Wild almond. Spa.: Almendro silvestre. Fre.: Amandier sauvage. Ara.: Luza, luz, talluzt, talluzet, taluzt, tiluzín, elluz, zelluz. Tam.: Ibaubaun.
Shrub or small tree, deciduous, monoecious, up to 4(5) m high. Trunk well defined, tortuous, with bark fissured longitudinally, greyish-blackish bark. Intricate and spiny branches, spreading or a little erect, with a greyish-silver bark, fissured transversely, which falls off in thin, slightly rolled plates. Very numerous and thorny twigs that form very open angles with the main axis. Leaves (0.6-0.9 x 2-3.5 cm) alternate, lanceolate, thin and compact, with a finely crenate or serrated margin, with glandular teeth, glabrous, of an intense green color on the adaxial surface and a little lighter on the abaxial surface. Petiole 1.2-3 cm, glabrous; stipules deciduous. Flower buds appear early, appearing usually before the leaves. Flowers solitary or geminate, hermaphrodites. Pedicel very short, covered by the scales of the bud. Calyx with 5 sepals, oval, glabrous but a little hairy around the edges, green or reddish. Corolla with 5 petals of c. 10 mm, ovovate, with a more or less emarginate apex, glabrous, white or light pink, with purple venation. Stamens very numerous, with yellow anthers and stamens at first white, then purple. The fruit is an ovoid drupe (called tryma), acute, slightly compressed, 0.4-0.7 x 1-1.5 cm, with coriaceous external shell (mesocarp), tomentose-greenish, that when mature dries and opens, leaving a much tougher cover (endocarp) almost free, oval-acute, carenate, with numerous irregular small holes; inside, it contains an almond very bitter.
Flowering:
December to March.
Fruiting:
July to September.
Habitat:
Forests and rocky outcrops on various substrates. In dry to humid bioclimate, on inframediterranean to mesomediterranean belts.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region and SW Asia. In N of Africa it is widely distributed from N of Morocco (Rif, Middle Atlas) to N of Tunisia (Medjerda Valley and Tunisian Ridge). Possibly also in Libya (Jebel Akhdar). Dubuis and Faurel (1964) cite a considerable density of this species in Algeria at the base of the rocky cliffs on the N slope of Jb. Mansourah (Mansourah des Bibans), where it forms a small forest with good-looking trees.
Observations:
Since ancient times, man has developed varieties reducing bitterness and increasing the size of their fruits. This is how appeared P. dulcis (Miller) D.A. Webb (P. amygdalus Batsch, Amygdalus communis L.) and its numerous varieties, today cultivated in all temperate and subtropical regions of the planet. In a process similar to that of wild olive and olive trees. P. webbii and P. dulcis hybridize, which together with the presence in the field of feral forms of P. dulcis has made that P. webbii goes unnoticed by botanists in many Mediterranean countries from which it is native. The main differences between them lie in the fact that P. webbii is usually smaller (among other reasons because it has been relegated to rocky areas and other areas with poor soils, not suitable for agriculture), its branches are more intricate and thorny, its leaves and fruits are much smaller (those of the cultivated varieties are often more than triple in weight and size), and their fruits are very bitter.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species, in principle it is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.