Lonicera implexa Aiton
Eng.: Evergreen honeysuckle. Spa.: Madreselva. Fre.: Chèvrefeuille des Balèares. Ara.: Zeher el açel, jauher d-dar, nuwara. Tam.: Gab-n-igaïzen, irifi, tiski.
Climbing shrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, with sarmentose branches that reach up to 3-4 m in height. Bark of the thickest and oldest branches brownish-greyish to blackish, fissured. Young branches smooth, glabrous, with bark with reddish tones and sometimes covered with a thin bluish-white waxy layer. Leaves (2-9 cm long) opposite, lower and middle leaves from ovate-oblong to obovate, sessile; upper leaves progressively fused up to the end of the branchlet where the last pair is completely fused, forming a single elliptical leaf. Leaves all coriaceous, hairless, with entire margin, but slightly undulate and revolute, green on the upper side and white-bluish on the underside. Flowers elongated, tubular (3-5 cm long), sessile, in glomeruli of 2-9 flowers, on the last pair of leaves. Ovary ovoid with a small calyx with 5 obtuse lobes. Corolla tubular, whitish-yellowish, often with reddish and pinkish tones, irregular, with 2 very different lips: lower lip with a single petal and upper lip with 4, smaller and fused petals. Stamens 5. Style and stamanes fairly exserted. Fruit an ovoid-rounded red berry.
Flowering:
April to June.
Fruiting:
June to August.
Habitat:
On very diverse terrains, from sea level to 2,200 m in altitude, usually in forests, thickets and sclerophyllous hedges. From semiarid to humid bioclimate, on mainly thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean floors. It can withstand drought well.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa, it is well distributed throughout the non-tropical Mediterranean area, from Morocco to Tunisia. It is the most xerophytic species of the genus in North Africa, and therefore the most abundant.
Conservation status:
Common and widely distributed species. 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 Least Concern (LC).
