Retama raetam (Forssk.) Webb subsp. raetam
Genista raetam Forssk., Lygos raetam (Forssk.) Heywood, R. duriaei (Spach) Webb, Spartium monospermum auct. Afr. N.
Eng.: White weeping broom, white broom. Spa.: Retama moruna. Fre.: Retam retam. Ara.: Rtem, ratam, aluggu, uliga, besliga; the fruit: qerih. Tam.: Telet, telggit, tillugit, tilugguii, taleggut, tselgust aluggu, algu.
Shrub or small tree up to 3.5 m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, with stems and branches highly branched from the base, erect, very flexible and often with a pendulous ending, with few leaves. Stems and branches with brown or blackish bark. Young branchlets with T-shaped ribs, densely sericeous-silvery at first and then greenish, only hairy along the grooves. Leaves unifoliolate, alternate, subsessile, very promptly deciduous, with stipules, with leaflet 3-7 mm, linear or linear-lanceolate, entire, sericeous-silvery on both sides. Inflorescence racemose, solitary or geminate, lax, axillary, with flowers shortly pedicellate, each accompanied by 2 promptly caducous bracteoles. Calyx c. 4 mm, campanulate-urceolate, bilabiate, with subequal lips and shorter than the tube, the upper lip bipartite and the lower lip tridentate and with very short teeth, ± reddish, glabrous or glabrescent. Corolla 7-10 mm, papilionoid, white, with an ovate or suborbicular standard, slightly emarginate at the apex, sericeous towards the distal part of the dorsal side and often with reddish veins, wings subequal in size to the standard and an obtuse keel, often as long as the wings and the standard. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary glabrous, and a small stigma. Pod 7-18 × 5-10 mm, ovoid-globose, not keeled, longly attenuated at both ends, glabrous, dehiscent, green at first and then brown or red-brown, usually with 1 seed. Seeds 3.5-7 mm, ovoid-oblong, smooth, greenish-yellow at first and then blackish.
Flowering:
February to June.
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
In rocky terrains, sandy soils and dunes, in desert to semiarid bioclimate.
Distribution:
The species, in the broad sense, is highly polymorphic, and extends throughout the Macaronesia, North Africa, Sicily, and SW Asia. The subsp. raetam is distributed in North Africa; widespread along the high Algerian-Moroccan steppic plateaux, the Saharan Atlas, northern and central Sahara, from Morocco to Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula.
Observations:
Some of the recognised subspecies have a very restricted area and are not represented in the territory [as is R. raetam subsp. gussonei (Webb) Greuter, endemic to Sicily (Italy)].
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.