Carthamus fruticosus Maire
Phonus fruticosus (Maire) G. López
Spa.: Cardo del Atlas. Fre.: Carthame de l’Atlas. Ara.:/Tam.: Uajrik, ifskil.
Shrub, very spiny-prickly, ± evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 1.5(2) m in height, upright, with well-defined trunk or, frequently, highly branched from the base then ± hemispheric in shape. Branches straight, strongly striated, with greenish-greyish bark. Leaves alternate, in 2 types: some are always solitary, longly linear, rigid, spinescent, entire or with 2 small spinescent lobes at the base, first green, then white when dry, persistent on the plant for several years; the other leaves are borne solitary or in axillary brachyblasts on which the new branchlets will be born, these leaves are longly oblong, acute or obtuse, attenuated at the base, ± soft, not rigid or spinescent, greenish-greyish on both sides, caducous, which they fall off when dry, hence they only appear on young branches. Inflorescence in solitary capitula, axillary and terminal, about 2-3 cm, narrowly ovoid, surrounded at the base by bracts very similar to the spinescent leaves, ± the same length as the capitulum; the other involucral bracts ovate-lanceolate, entire, without teeth as in the 2 previous species of the genus. Flowers tubular, regular, without ligules, very protruding above the bracts, yellow. Fruit a small obovoid-subtetragonal achene, with pappus of hairs violet to blackish, persistent.
Flowering:
April to August.
Fruiting:
June to October.
Habitat:
Thickets, grasslands and rocky outcrops on very diverse substrates, with limestone or siliceous base. Low and medium mountain (800-2,200 m), in areas of semiarid bioclimate, mainly on mesomediterranean floor.
Distribution:
Endemic to Morocco, on the S watershed of the central High Atlas —it also reaches the N watershed and eastern area, although it is rarer— and the central (from the Siroua Massif) and eastern Anti-Atlas.
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).
