Rhamnus alpina L.
Atadinus alpinus (L.) Raf.
Eng.: Alpine buckthorn. Spa.: Pudio. Fre.: Nerprun.
Shrub, deciduous, usually dioecious, sometimes with hermaphrodite flowers, up to 3(4) m in height, ramose, generally upright. Trunk straight —when growing on good soils— or tortuous, with smooth bark, slightly or not fissured, greyish-brown. Branches reddish-brown, younger branches green, pubescent. Leaves (2-10 × 0.9-4 cm) alternate, oval-lanceolate, oval-oblong or obovate-oblong, generally acute, attenuated or rounded at the base, sometimes cordiform, with irregularly crenate-dentate margin, with 7-15 pairs of lateral veins, almost parallel, glabrous and intense green on the upper side, with short tomentum, sparse and lighter on the underside. Petiole well developed (0.6-1.5 cm), with promptly caducous stipules. Inflorescence in small axillary fascicles. Flowers greenish-yellowish, longly pedunculate, male and female flowers on separate plants. Calyx campanulate, with 4 triangular sepals. Petals 4, very short, greenish-yellowish, alternating between the sepals. Fruit a slightly fleshy drupe, obovate, 0.4-0.8 cm long, first green, then reddish-brown and finally blackish, furrowed. Seeds 2-4, with a groove on the dorsal side.
Flowering:
May to June.
Fruiting:
August to September.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops in mountainous areas, on chalky terrain. In semiarid to humid bioclimate, on supramediterranean and oromediterranean floors.
Distribution:
The species grows in Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. Subsp. alpina Beger, is distributed in the western Mediterranean. In North Africa this subspecies grows very localised in the limestone mountains of the Middle Atlas (Jebel Hayan; Kubbat), High Atlas (Morocco), eastern Tellian Atlas and the Aures Massif (Algeria).
Observations:
Recent publications place this species in the genus Atadinus Raf., as Atadinus alpinus (L.) Raf.
Conservation status:
It is a common species with a wide distribution in the Palearctic as a whole, but very rare and threatened by overgrazing in North Africa. 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).
