Thymelaea tartonraira (L.) All.
Daphne tartonraira L.
Spa.: Salamonda. Fre.: Passerine tartonraire. Ara.: Lezzaz el rhezal, talazazt, buftila, belganbu.
Subshrub up to 50 cm in height, ± compact and usually semiglobose in shape, dioecious (sometimes trimonoecious: male, female and hermaphrodite flowers on the same plant). Stems erect; older stems glabrescent or ± pubescent, leafless, on which the short bare axis (0.5 mm) of old inflorescences are prominent; young stems pubescent, the most tender stems velvety or sericeous. Leaves 10-27 × 3-12 mm, ± patent, spatulate, obtuse or subacute, flat or ± incurved, sessile, coriaceous, persistent, pubescent on both sides —with very short and applied hairs—, younger leaves sericeous, older leaves glabrescent. Inflorescences in axillary glomeruli, with 2-5 flowers; with c. 12 bracts 1.5-2.5 mm, appressed-imbricate, broadly ovate or deltoid, yellowish, pubescent. Flowers unisexual (male flowers with rudimentary ovary) or hermaphrodite, 4.5-6 mm, infundibuliform, greenish or yellowish; hypanthium densely white-tomentose; sepals 1-2.5 mm, ovate, subacute, the pair of overlapping sepals with a partial indumentum on their inner face. Style subapical. Fruit nuciform, included in the hypanthium, with membranous pericarp and with an indumentum. Seeds 2.8-3.3 × 1.5-1.9 mm, from ovoid to pyriform, with curved apex and prominent chalaza hidden by a brown aril 0.2-0.9 mm diameter.
Flowering:
March to July.
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
Stony areas in open forests of pines, thujas and evergreen oaks, thickets and grasslands, from about 680-1,800 m. In semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean bioclimatic belts.
Distribution:
Western Mediterranean region. In North Africa in Morocco (western Rif and northern Middle Atlas), Algeria (Tellian Atlas and Saharan Atlas) and Tunisia (Tunisian Dorsal and other mountains of the N).
Observations:
Th. tartonraira shows a marked polymorphism difficult to typify. In North Africa var. transiens (Briq.) Kit Tan has been described, although based on some inconsistent characters.
Conservation status:
Rare species (although sometimes locally abundant), widely distributed. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.