Rosmarinus officinalis L.
Eng.: Common rosemary. Spa.: Romero común. Fre.: Romarin commun. Ara.: Iklil al jabal, klil, hassalhan, hassalban, hatssa luban. Tam.: lazir, aziir, uzbir, aklel, tuzala.
Shrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, very aromatic, up to 1.5(2) m in height, upright, rarely prostrate, highly branched. Stems and older branches with greyish-brown bark, fissured longitudinally. Branches reddish and glabrous. Young branchlets subtetragonal, covered with very short whitish hairs. Leaves (10-40 × 1.4 mm), very abundant, linear, with entire margin, very revolute, obtuse, shortly petiolate, opposite, coriaceous, glabrous and deep and bright green on the upper side and densely covered with small whitish hairs on the underside. Inflorescence in short racemes, axillary or terminal, with small ovate and caducous bracts. Flower 9-14 mm. Calyx campanulate, bilabiate, with upper lip entire or subentire, lower lip deeply divided into 2 triangular teeth; with some hairs that are usually promptly caducous, then becoming glabrous, pruinose; green with reddish hues. Corolla from deep blue to whitish, with 2 very different lips: the upper lip subentire or with 2 elongated lobules, and the lower lip with 3 lobules, with a much larger central lobule. Stamens 2, very exserted. Fruit very small, brownish, included in the persistent calyx.
Flowering:
Almost all year round but especially in spring.
Fruiting:
About 2 months after flowering.
Habitat:
Cleared forests, thickets and steppic areas, on very diverse substrates, calcareous and siliceous. From semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean floors. Common species in degraded Holm oak and thuya forests, where the Aleppo pine becomes the dominant tree species of these impoverished soils.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa it is common throughout the Mediterranean area reaching in the S to the High Atlas and the Saharan Atlas.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.