Ononis fruticosa L.
Eng.: Restharrow. Spa.: Garbancera, garbancillera borde. Fre.: Bugrane.
Shrub up to 1 m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, evergreen, highly branched, erect. Stems and old branches with brownish bark, glabrescent. Young branchlets tomentose-whitish. Leaves alternate, usually trifoliolate, petiolate, with stipules partially fused to the petiole, leaflets 3-35 × 1-7 mm, somewhat thick, narrowly obovate-cuneate, almost entirely serrated or dentate, green, glabrous. Inflorescences axillary and concentrated especially at the end of the stem, peduncle with a short arista, with 1-3 pedicellate flowers. Calyx (3)4-5.5 mm, herbaceous, hairy-glandular, greenish, deeply split into 5 lanceolate teeth, longer than the tube. Corolla 11-20 mm, papilionoid, with a puberulous-glanduliferous standard, pinkish with purple veins, and white towards the claw, whitish-pink wings, and keel falcate with a pinkish tip. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary hairy and capitated stigma. Pod 16-30 mm, subcylindrical, densely-hairy-glandular, very exserted, with 3-4 seeds. Seeds 2.5-4 mm, reniform, finely papillose, brown.
Flowering:
April to August.
Fruiting:
May to September.
Habitat:
Thickets, on calcareous substrates.
Distribution:
SE France, central, eastern and southern areas of peninsular Spain and NW Africa: Morocco (NE Middle Atlas) and Algeria (Aures Massif).
Conservation status:
A rare but widely distributed species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Endangered (EN).
