Kleinia anteuphorbium (L.) Haw.
Senecio anteuphorbium (L.) Sch.Bip., S. pteroneurus (DC.) Ball., K. pteroneura DC.
Eng.: Swizzle sticks, cigar plant. Spa.: Verode marroquí. Ara.: Achbartu.
Erect shrub, deciduous, hermaphrodite, up to 0.7(1) m in height; sometimes lianescent (it that case it leans on trees, shrubs or rocks, and stems can reach up to 2.5 m in length). Stems thickened at the base, fleshy, green-greyish or older stems completely greyish due to drying of outer part. Young stems and branches green-greyish, appearing whitish from afar, with numerous longitudinal striations, slightly pronounced, deep green. Leaves (0.5-3 × 0.2-1.3 cm), very spaced apart and promptly deciduous, ovate-oblong or ellipsoid, acute, mucronate with short mucro, attenuated at the base, sessile or subsessile, with entire margin, fleshy, glabrous, light green on both sides. Inflorescence in terminal groups of 2-4 floral capitula, longly pedunculate. Involucre with a single row of about 12 linear-lanceolate, acute bracts. Flowers white, with yellow anthers and stigma; all flowers tubular, without ligules. Fruit a small achene with a long feathery, open pappus.
Flowering:
Spring to summer.
Fruiting:
In the summer.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets, rocky outcrops, steppes, in areas of arid to dry bioclimate, on inframediterranean and thermomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Endemic to the African Macaronesian region. Coastal and subcoastal regions from Middle Atlantic Morocco (Chauia, Dukkala, Abda, Haha, Sus) and the western foothills of the High Atlas to the N, and up to Cape Bojador to the S.
Observations:
A closely related species is K. neriifolia Haw. [Senecio kleinia (L.) Less.] from the Canary Islands. Both species are very similar and when cultivated together they have spontaneously hybridised.
Conservation status:
Rare 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).
