Ononis natrix L.
Eng.: Yellow restharrow, shrubby rest-harrow. Spa.: Garbancillo, melosa, hierba melera, atrapamoscas. Fre.: Bugrane fétide, bugrane gluante. Ara.: Shedida, bu izurarz, (Egypt): littein. Tam.: Tuizurat, henni, afsdad.
Suffrutex up to 1 m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, evergreen, highly branched from the base, erect, very viscous. Stems and old branches with brownish bark, glabrescent or hairy-glandular. Young branchlets green, densely hairy-glanduliferous, and with eglandular hairs up to 1.8 mm. Leaves alternate, cauline leaves trifoliolate —exceptionally some are imparipinnate at the base of the stems— and leaves of the floral part unifoliolate, petiolate, with stipules partially fused to the petiole, leaflets (5)10-30 × 3-20 mm, herbaceous, elliptic to ovate or suborbicular, dentate, green, hairy-glandular. Inflorescences axillary, peduncle with an arista of 2-15 mm and 1 pedicellate flower. Calyx 6-17 mm, densely hairy-glanduliferous, with longer eglandular hairs, green, deeply split into 5 lanceolate teeth, longer than the tube. Corolla 7-25 mm, papilionoid, with a glabrous standard, yellow with violet or purple veins, wings and keel yellow or yellowish-white, the keel falcate. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary hairy and capitated stigma. Pod (11)13-25 mm, subcylindrical, hairy-glandular, very exserted, with 3-27 seeds. Seeds 1.5-2.1 mm, reniform, tuberculate, brown.
Flowering:
April to July.
Fruiting:
July to August.
Habitat:
Open thickets, wasteland and roadsides, in almost all types of terrain, from sea level to mid and high mountains (up to 2,500 m in altitude), mainly in the Mediterranean region but also in the northern Sahara. Found in arid to humid bioclimate, on inframediterranean to supramediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Across much of western and central Europe, Mediterranean region and Macaronesia (Madeira and Canary Islands). In North Africa it grows across the Mediterranean area and less arid regions of the northern Sahara in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt.
Observations:
Extremely polymorphic species for which numerous infraspecific taxa have been described. Some of these taxa can be clearly separated, but others are still under this species, and some of the latter have been recognised as different species but are not easily separated. Plants with smaller flowers (7-10 mm), and with hairs on the stems always less than 0.5 mm, glanduliferous or not, are included under O. natrix subsp. prostrata (Braun-Blanq. & Wilczek) Širj. (O. natrix var. prostrata Braun-Blanq. & Wilczek), a Moroccan endemic well represented in the Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Anti-Atlas. The other 2 subspecies have larger flowers (corolla 10-25 mm), and larger eglandular hairs on the stem, 0.6-1.8 mm. The most widely distributed in the territory is O. natrix L. subsp. natrix, scattered throughout almost the whole of the non-steppic Mediterranean area of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, Libya and Egypt; while O. natrix subsp. arganietorum (Maire) Širj. (O. arganietorum Maire) is endemic to Morocco (Rif and Atlas). Both differ mainly in the arista length of the peduncles, (2)5-15 and 1-5(7.5) mm respectively, and the size of the flowers, with calyces (7)9-17 and 6-8.5(10) mm.
A similar species is O. tazaensis Förther & Podlech, that grows in montane thickets in the Middle Atlas in Morocco (Tazekka) and Algeria (Djurdjura Massif, Tellian Atlas). It is similar to O. natrix subsp. Prostrata for its smaller indumentum, but the shape of the leaflets and size of the corolla are closer to the other 2 subspecies of this species.
There are a further 2 species that are part of this complex group that are also slightly lignified at the base; they can hardly be considered true shrubs, rather suffrutices (see review by Förther & Podlech, 1992), and both have the leaflets with glanduliferous and eglandular hairs. O. hesperia
(Maire) Förther & Podlech (O. natrix subsp. hesperia Maire), of Morocco and Algeria (and can reach Mauritania), and O. mogadorensis Förther & Podlech, an endemic species of the western coastal regions of Morocco (Kenitra, Safi and Agadir).
Conservation status:
O. natrix is a common and widespread species, whereas O. tazaensis, O. hesperia y O. mogadorensis are less common and with a smaller distribution area. Currently, none of these species have been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.