Stauracanthus boivinii (Webb) Samp.
Ulex boivinii Webb, incl. U. cossonii (Webb) Nyman, U. webbianus Coss.
Eng.: Gorse. Spa.: Tojo. Fre.: Ajonc. Ara.: Chebroq.
Subshrub or shrub, up to 1.5 m in height, very ramose and spiny, hermaphrodite, sometimes intricate (when growing on dry terrain and when grazed). Stem and older branches with brownish bark, fissured longitudinally. Young branches green, angular, with ribs in an inverted V shape, widely spaced, with short hairs, extended-erect, whitish; younger branchlets glabrescent, ending in spines, simple, trifurcated or pinnate. Phyllodes 2-3 × 0.5-1 mm, alternate, squamiform, from linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, spinescent, from which axil the spinescent branchlets are born. Flowers solitary on the lateral branchlets or forming short racemes, pedicellate, with pubescent pedicel (2-3 mm). Bracts persistent (1-1.5 × 0.5-0.6 mm), lanceolate-elliptical, puberulous on the dorsal side and with ciliate margin; bracteoles persistent, 0.7-2 × 0.4-0.7 mm, lanceolate with a villous dorsal side. Calyx 4-9 mm long, bilabiate, yellowish, villous-silky, with whitish hairs, with tube 1.2-1.7 mm and lips fused up to 1/4 of the length of the calyx; upper lip ovate, bidentate at the apex; the lower lip slightly longer, oblong, tridentate at the apex. Corolla 7-11 mm, papilionoid, yellow; standard silky-villous on the dorsal side; wings glabrescent, shorter than the standard and the keel; keel villous-silky on the dorsal side, slightly shorter than the standard. Androecium monadelphous. Ovary hairy. Pod 6.5-13 × 3-5 mm, ellipsoid, covered with white hairs which are lost almost entirely when mature, green at first and then black, longer than the persistent calyx, dehiscent, with (1)2-4 seeds. Seeds ovoid, black or greenish, with black concentric marks and yellowish or orange strophiole.
Flowering:
Almost throughout the year, but mainly between January and May.
Fruiting:
April to August.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets on various terrains, coastal dunes (usually coarse), plains, low and mid mountains. In semiarid to humid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Iberian-Mauritanian endemism. In North Africa it is found from NW Algeria (littoral and sublittoral mountains, reaching inland to the Tlemcen mountains) to the Atlantic coast of northern Morocco (Tingitana Peninsula, central and western Rif, Gharb plains, Atlantic Quercus suber forests of Mamora and others, and the northern area of the Middle Atlas).
Observations:
A rather polymorphic species of which a number of varieties have been described.
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.