Genista segonnei (Maire) P.E. Gibbs
Adenocarpus segonnei Maire, Cytisus segonnei (Maire) Maire, Teline segonnei (Maire) Raynaud, G. pseudoumbellata Caball.
Shrub up to 1.5 m in height, spinescent, hermaphrodite, highly branched from the base and somewhat intricate, with divaricate stems, not highly foliose. Stems and old branches with brown-blackish bark, fissured longitudinally, turning glabrous, with a rigid spinescent tip. Young branchlets striated-ribbed longitudinally, green, sericeous. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, with persistent stipules, subsessile or petiolate —petiole sericeous—, with leaflets 5-10 × 2.5-6 mm, less than 5 times longer than wide, subequal or with the central leaflet somewhat larger, obovate or oblong-obovate, flat, attenuated at the base, rounded or acute, and mucronate, green, with some hairs applied at least on the underside. Inflorescence capituliform or umbelliform, axillary, with 2-9 pedicellate flowers, with pedicel up to 2 mm, villous. Calyx c. 8 mm, densely villous, split up to halfway into 2 lips, the upper lip divided up to the base into 2 ovate segments, and the lower lip tridentate, with subulate teeth. Corolla 10-12 mm, papilionoid, yellow, marcescent, with a suborbicular standard, emarginate, sericeous on the dorsal side, longer than the wings and the keel. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary villous, and capitate stigma. Pod c. 18 × 6 mm, linear-oblong, compressed, green at first and then turning brownish, densely villous or cottony, with 2-3 seeds. Seeds 2.8-4 mm, ± ovoid or somewhat compressed, smooth, brownish, with an aril.
Flowering:
March to April.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Mountainous forests and thickets, on siliceous substrates, between 1,000 and 2,000 m above sea level. In areas with semiarid to subhumid bioclimate, on inframediterranean to mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Endemic to Morocco, on the wettest mountains of the western Anti-Atlas.
Conservation status:
Always a rare species and with a small distribution range; however it is 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).
