Solanum dulcamara L.
Eng.: Bittersweet. Spa.: Dulcamara, dulceamarga. Fre.: Morelle douce-amère. Ara.: Yasmin el khela, aurzit, halua m’ra. Tam.: Sekigigueren, aurizi.
Deciduous climbing shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 4 m in height, subglabrous or ± densely covered by an indumentum of simple hairs. Leaves alternate, with long petioles, with petiole 10-30 mm and leaf blade up to 9(10) × 5(10) cm, ovate, ovate-oblong or lanceolate, entire or with 1-4 lobes, slightly pubescent, acute or acuminate and cordate or hastate at the base. Inflorescences extra-axillary, with long peduncles, paniculiform, multiflorous. Calyx 1.5-3 mm in length, slightly accrescent at fruiting, with 5 lobes broadly ovate or broadly oblong, with scarious margin, mucronate. Corolla with 5 fused petals, 12-20 mm in diameter, violet or purple, rarely white, with 5 lobes ovate-lanceolate, acute, reflexed. Stamens of the same length, anthers 4.5-6 mm, yellow. Ovary glabrous. Fruit a berry, from 8-15 × 5-10 mm, ellipsoid or ovoid, red.
Flowering:
March to September.
Fruiting:
In autumn.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets in dark and humid terrain, usually near watercourses. From semiarid to humid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Palaearctic. In North Africa it is rare; found in the N of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In Morocco it grows from the Rif to the High Atlas; in Algeria, in the Tellian Atlas; in Tunisia, in the NE (Jebel Goraa, Cap Serrat, etc.).
Observations:
Some authors consider that the mayority of its populations are artificial in origin, with plants that became naturalised; but this is still to be resolved.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the updated red list of Egypt (Shaltout & Bedair, 2023) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC).
