Flueggea tinctoria

Inflorescence and spines

Flueggea tinctoria is a dioecious, deciduous shrub with up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height, very branchy from the base. Branches are erect-patent, spinescent, cylindrical, smooth or warty, glabrous or puberulous and have short, small and thick hairs. Leaves are alternate and glabrous. Inflorescences have 2-4 (up to 6) fasciculate or solitary flowers, which are erect-patent in a male and sort of pendulous in the female; the pedicel of the male flowers is 2–6 mm (0.079–0.236 in) and in the female 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in). It has 5 to 8 very exerted stamens. Fruits are 3.5–4 mm (0.14–0.16 in) in diameter, subglobose, depressed, trisulcate; pedicel is up to 15 mm (0.59 in) long. Seeds are smooth, around 2 mm × 1.5 mm (0.079 in × 0.059 in) and convex on the back and flat laterally.[2]

Habit

Flueggea tinctoria is native to the southwest quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula (inland Portugal and centralwestern-southwestern Spain), a good representative of the western Iberian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests. It inhabits shrubby communities, on flood beds and torrential watercourses, on siliceous terrain, usually stony, from 20 to 200 m (66 to 656 ft) in altitude. It is especially dominant in the river basins of the Guadalquivir, Guadiana, Tagus and Douro.[2][3]