Retama monosperma (L.) Boiss.
Spartium monospermum L., Genista monosperma (L.) Lam., Lygos monosperma (L.) Heywood
Eng.: White broom, bridal broom. Spa.: Retama, retama blanca. Fre.: Genêt blanc, rétam blanc. Ara.: Rtem, r’tem, retaam, aluggu. Tam.: Taleggut.
Shrub or small tree up to 3 m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, with stems and branches highly branched from the base, upright and turning somewhat pendulous, very flexible, with few leaves. Stems and branches with brownish bark. Young branchlets with 11-14 T-shaped ribs, sericeous-silvery at first and then turning greenish, glabrous. Leaves unifoliolate, alternate, subsessile, very quickly deciduous, with stipules, with leaflet 4-8 mm, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, entire, sericeous-silvery on both sides. Inflorescence racemose, lax, axillary, with 10-26 flowers briefly pedicellate, each accompanied with 2 promptly caducous bracteoles. Calyx 3-4.5 mm, campanulate-cylindrical, bilabiate, with lips shorter than the tube, the upper lip bipartite and the lower lip tridentate and with shorter teeth, reddish or ± violet, glabrescent. Corolla 8-16 mm, papilionoid, white, with an elliptical standard, apiculate, sericeous on the whole dorsal side or only along the midrib, wings subequal in size and keel much shorter. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary glabrous —except along the suture line—, and stigma globose. Pod 10-20 × 9-14 mm, ± globose, somewhat asymmetric, keeled along the suture line, apiculate, glabrous, dehiscent, green at first and then yellowish-brown, with 1 seed, rarely 2 or 3Seeds 5-8.5 mm, ellipsoidal, smooth, black.
Flowering:
February to March (May).
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Coastal dunes, mobile or semifixed, also present but rare inland.
Distribution:
Littoral and sublittoral regions of the SW Iberian Peninsula and N Africa (from Morocco to Egypt).
Observations:
In the study area 2 subspecies are recognised. R. monosperma (L.) Boiss. subsp. monospermous has flowers of 8-10.5 mm, with a sericeous standard, and anthers 0.3-0.8 mm; it grows in Morocco (from the Tingitana Peninsula to the western Anti-Atlas, penetrating inland to the central High Atlas). R. monosperma subsp. bovei (Spach) Maire [Spartium bovei Spach, R. bovei (Spach) Webb, R.. monosperma var. bovei (Spach) Pau], has larger flowers, 10-14(16) mm, with a standard sericeous only on the midrib, and anthers 1-1.6 mm. It is distributed along the coastal and subcoastal areas of eastern Morocco, Algeria (littoral areas W of Cherchell and near Annaba), Tunisia, and Egypt.
Conservation status:
A relatively common and widespread species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.