Rhamnus lycioides | |
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Mediterranean buckthorn | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Rhamnaceae |
Genus: | Rhamnus |
Species: | R. lycioides |
Binomial name | |
Rhamnus lycioides | |
Rhamnus lycioides, the black hawthorn, European buckthorn, or Mediterranean buckthorn, is a shrub up to about 1.5-4 metres tall [1] in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. It is found in the Mediterranean region, in southern Europe and northern Africa. Its scientific name lycioides refers to its resemblance to the botanical genus Lycium .
Rhamnus lycioides is a slow growth shrub adapted to dry Mediterranean climate. It is a deciduous or evergreen shrub of 1.5–4 meters high with a tangled, thorny, and many-branched form. The bark is grayish, and the young stems are topped with a thorn.
Leaves are light green and, 0.5 to 3.5 centimeters long and 0.3 to 1 inch wide. The tip is obtuse to apiculate. The leaf is entire, linear to obovate, glabrous, narrow and elongated, sometimes slightly broadened towards the apex. They are sometimes leathery and persistent. Lateral nerves have little or no markings on the underside.
The yellow flowers are inconspicuous, standing in groups and appear in the winter. The calyx shows four sharp corners. The flowers are very small, solitary or in small bundles in the axils of the leaves, greenish-yellow with 4 triangular lobes. The petals are rudimentary or nonexistent.
The fruits ovoid, 4-6 millimeters large, yellowish and are beginning to ripen black. The berry is having inside a single seed or more, depending on the subspecies.
It does not bloom and bear fruit at the same time. Several specimens of the same population bear fruit in different months extending the availability of the species as food for birds that disperse their seeds. The berry is purgative, very bitter and in large quantities is toxic to humans.
Five subspecies are recognized: [2]
In the Iberian Peninsula is distributed throughout the central, eastern and south and its natural habitat are the sclerophyllous forest, and woods of pines, oaks, holm oaks and quercus coccifera.
The species is found in the Mediterranean region, particularly in Spain and the Balearic Islands. It also grows on Mediterranean islands and islets, in northern Africa, the Apennine Peninsula and in former Yugoslavia on rocky, nutrient-poor soils.
The plant appears in sclerophyllous forests, scrub, and even solitary in severely degraded drylands as a pioneer species as the species is resilient to overgrazing and trampling by livestock. It is very resistant to drought, preferring calcareous soils. In extremely dry and windy climates it appears in the rocks. It survives in desert areas with annual rainfall of 200 mm.
The plant thrives in dry forests and bushes, under the Kermes oak, the Holm oak, Aleppo pine and juniper. It is a very hardy plant, which occupies poor soils, gritty and highly eroded. Along with the gorse and thistles are the latest species to disappear in overgrazed areas, being of inestimable value to small birds for its fruit and as the protection and support for their nests. The species is very important for desert birds by their fruits with high water content. The fruit can cause death in mammals, but is consumed by ants and birds.
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct sunlight. The word comes from the Greek sklēros (hard) and phyllon (leaf). The term was coined by A.F.W. Schimper in 1898, originally as a synonym of xeromorph, but the two words were later differentiated.
Quercus suber, commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores of cricket balls. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. In the Mediterranean basin the tree is an ancient species with fossil remnants dating back to the Tertiary period. It can survive for as long as two centuries. Typically, once it reaches 25 years old, its thick bark can be harvested for cork every 9 to 12 years without causing harm to the tree.
Rhamnus is a genus of about 140 accepted species of shrubs or small trees, commonly known as buckthorns, in the family Rhamnaceae. Its species range from 1 to 10 m tall and are native mainly in east Asia and North America, but found throughout the temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere, and also more locally in the subtropical Southern Hemisphere in parts of Africa and South America. One species, the common buckthorn, is able to flourish as an invasive plant in parts of Canada and the U.S., where it has become naturalized.
Hippophae is the genus of sea buckthorns, deciduous shrubs in the family Elaeagnaceae. The name sea buckthorn may be hyphenated to avoid confusion with the unrelated true buckthorns. It is also referred to as sandthorn, sallowthorn, or seaberry. It produces orange-yellow berries, which have been used over centuries as food, traditional medicine, and skin treatment in Mongolia, Ladakh, Russia, Ukraine, and northern Europe, which are its origin regions.
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin, also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea, is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and warm to hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation. It was a very important part of Mediterranean civilizations.
Quercus coccifera, the kermes oak or holly oak, is an oak shrub or tree in section Ilex of the genus. It has many synonyms, including Quercus calliprinos. It is native to the Mediterranean region and Northern African Maghreb, south to north from Morocco to France and west to east from Portugal to Cyprus and Turkey, crossing Spain, Italy, Libya, Balkans, and Greece, including Crete. The Kermes oak was historically important as the food plant of Kermes scale insects, from which a red dye called crimson was obtained. The etymology of the specific name coccifera is related to the production of red cochineal (crimson) dye and derived from Latin coccum which was from Greek κόκκος, the kermes insect. The Latin -fera means 'bearer'.
Hippophae rhamnoides, also known as sea-buckthorn, sandthorn, sallowthorn or seaberry, is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeagnaceae, native to the cold-temperate regions of Europe and Asia. It is a spiny deciduous shrub. The plant is used in the food and cosmetics industries, in traditional medicine, as animal fodder, in horticulture, and for ecological purposes.
Frangula californica is a species of flowering plant in the buckthorn family native to western North America. It produces edible fruits and seeds. It is commonly known as California coffeeberry and California buckthorn.
The woodlands of the Iberian Peninsula are distinct ecosystems on the Iberian Peninsula. Although the various regions are each characterized by distinct vegetation, the borders between these regions are not clearly defined, and there are some similarities across the peninsula.
Rhamnus cathartica, the European buckthorn, common buckthorn, purging buckthorn, or just buckthorn, is a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Rhamnaceae. It is native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia, from the central British Isles south to Morocco, and east to Kyrgyzstan. It was introduced to North America as an ornamental shrub in the early 19th century or perhaps before, and is now naturalized in the northern half of the continent, and is classified as an invasive plant in several US states and in Ontario, Canada.
Frangula alnus, commonly known as alder buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, or breaking buckthorn, is a tall deciduous shrub in the family Rhamnaceae. Unlike other "buckthorns", alder buckthorn does not have thorns. It is native to Europe, northernmost Africa, and western Asia, from Ireland and Great Britain north to the 68th parallel in Scandinavia, east to central Siberia and Xinjiang in western China, and south to northern Morocco, Turkey, and the Alborz in Iran and the Caucasus Mountains; in the northwest of its range, it is rare and scattered. It is also introduced and naturalised in eastern North America.
The Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests is an ecoregion in southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Dalmatian Islands of Croatia, and Malta.
Rhamnus crocea subsp. ilicifolia, synonym Rhamnus ilicifolia, is a subspecies of flowering plant in the buckthorn family, known by the common name hollyleaf redberry. It is native to western North America, where it is a common plant growing in many types of habitat, including chaparral and wooded areas, from Oregon through California, to Baja California and Arizona.
Rhamnus crocea subsp. pirifolia, synonym Rhamnus pirifolia, is a subspecies of tree and shrub in the buckthorn family known by the common name island redberry. It is an island endemic which is known only from the Channel Islands of California and Guadalupe Island off Baja California. Its habitat consists of coastal sage scrub and chaparral.
Rhamnus alaternus is a species of flowering plant in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, known by the common names Italian buckthorn or Mediterranean buckthorn. It is a hardy medium-sized evergreen shrub with fragrant flowers.
Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrub is a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is generally characterized by dry summers and rainy winters, although in some areas rainfall may be uniform. Summers are typically hot in low-lying inland locations but can be cool near colder seas. Winters are typically mild to cool in low-lying locations but can be cold in inland and higher locations. All these ecoregions are highly distinctive, collectively harboring 10% of the Earth's plant species.
Rhamnus oleoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae, native from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
The Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests is an ecoregion in the lands around the Aegean Sea. The ecoregion covers most of mainland Greece, the Greek Aegean Islands, the western coast of Turkey, the southern Vardar river valley in North Macedonia, the southern Struma river valley at the extreme south-western corner of Bulgaria.
The Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in southwestern Europe. It occupies the interior valleys and plateaus of the Iberian Peninsula. The ecoregion lies mostly in Spain, and includes some portions of eastern Portugal.
The flora of Cantabria is the result of three determining factors: the climate, the composition of the soil, directly dependent on the types of existing rocks, and the evolutionary history of the different plant formations.