Warionia saharae Coss.
Ara.: Kebbar el rhelem, kebar el ghlem. Tam.: Afezdad, afessas, afzaz, uijjan, aruzzir, timet.
Shrub or small evergreen tree, hermaphrodite, very fragrant, up to 2.5(4) m in height, highly ramose, upright. Stems and older branches tortuous, with greyish-brown bark, highly fissured. Young branches glabrous, green. Leaves (3-12 × 1.5-5 cm) oblong, acute, attenuated at the base into a short petiole, strongly undulate, with large acute lobes, dentate, glabrous, deep green on both sides, covered with small glands which cause a very strong, fetid odour. Inflorescence corymbiform, with few capitula; capitula sometimes solitary, terminal or lateral. Peduncles short, usually with leaves. Capitula very large (3-6 cm in diameter) with numerous imbricate bracts, broad, with ciliated margins, coriaceous, acute. Flowers yellow, all tubular, without ligules. Fruit a small villous achene, crowned by a long whitish feathery pappus.
Flowering:
In summer.
Fruiting:
End of summer-autumn.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops, on limestone or siliceous soils, in areas of semiarid, arid and even Saharan bioclimate.
Distribution:
Endemic to the NW of Africa. Morocco and Algeria. High Atlas (southern watershed and western area up to near Essauira to the N), Anti-Atlas, Bani mountains, westernmost Saharan Atlas and in general almost all other pre-Saharan and Saharan mountain systems of the region between the High Atlas, the Saguia el Hamra and the Saharan Atlas.
Observations:
This monospecific genus has an extraordinary palaeoecological value. It constitutes one of the most important living vestiges of the ancient Tertiary tropical flora in the Mediterranean area of North Africa.
Conservation status:
Not a common species and with a small distribution area. 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 Near Threatened (NT).
