Rhamnus serpyllacea Greuter & Burdet
R. serpyllifolia Emb. & Maire
Creeping shrub, deciduous, usually dioecious, not thorny, young branches hirtas (with straight and rigid hairs). Evergreen leaves, alternate, small (6-15 x 3-8 mm), obovate, entire or with some teeth in the upper half, secondary veins incospiquous. Flowers tetramerous, solitary, unisexual. Sepals ovate, acute, glabrous. The fruit is a slightly fleshy drupe, subglobose, 0.2-0.4 cm long, first green, then reddish-brown and finally blackish, furrowed.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
August to September.
Habitat:
Thickets and rocky outcrops in mountainous areas, mainly on limestone soils, in a cool, sub-humid and humid environment, mainly on the supramediterranean belt.
Distribution:
It is a rare Moroccan endemism of the limestone rocks of the middle and high mountains of the northern Middle Atlas [Jb. Ouarirt (near Taza) and Guelb-er-RahaI].
Conservation status:
Very rare species of which little is known. Considered critically endangered (CR) by Garzuglia, M. (2006). Threatened, endangered and vulnerable tree species: a comparison between FRA 2005 and the IUCN Red List. FAO, Forestry Department, working paper 108 / E, Rome. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Critically Endangered (CR).
