''Rhamnus alaternus'' is a species of flowering plant in the buckthorn family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

, known by the common names Italian buckthorn or Mediterranean buckthorn. It is a

hardy Hardy may refer to: People * Hardy (surname) * Hardy (given name) * Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica * Mount Hardy, Enderby Land * Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island * Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands Australia * Hardy, Sout ...

medium-sized evergreen shrub with fragrant flowers.

Etymology

The specific Latin name ''alaternus'', is from the Latin word for the plant. Its origin is obscure but is often suggested to be of Etruscan or pre-Indo-European Mediterranean origin.

Description

''Rhamnus alaternus'' is an evergreen shrub high.Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia – Edagricole – 1982. Vol. II, pag. 78 The stems have reddish bark and pubescent young branches, rounded and compact foliage with alternating leaves, long, sometimes nearly opposite, oval or lanceolate, leathery, shiny green, yellowish-green underneath. The small fragrant flowers are gathered in a short axillary yellow-green

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

. The flowering period extends from February to April. Fruits are obovoidal red-brownish

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

s of about , containing from 2 to 4 seeds. The

s darken to black when ripe.

Distribution and habitat

This species is widespread in thermophilic evergreen bush and scrubland of the Mediterranean climate regions, from Gran Canaria, Morocco and Portugal in the west, to the Levant in the east, from sea level up to altitude.

Invasiveness

In Australia, where it was introduced as a garden shrub, it has become a serious invasive woody weed in many areas, especially coastal parts of SE Australia. Here it displaces native shrubs of similar size such as the sea box, '' Alyxia buxifolia'' (an endemic plant which had an important medicinal role for aboriginal people). It prevents subshrubs and herbaceous ground cover native plants from surviving due the heavy shade and competition for moisture and nutrients. It can form dense thickets with very low biodiversity.

Cultivation

This species is cultivated as an ornamental garden shrub, valued for its glossy evergreen leaves and red berries. The variegated cultivar 'Argenteovariegata' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

Subspecies

* ''Rhamnus alaternus'' subsp. ''alaternus'' * ''Rhamnus alaternus'' subsp. ''myrtifolia'' (

Willk. Heinrich Moritz Willkomm (29 June 1821, Herwigsdorf – 26 August 1895, Schloss Wartenberg in Wartenberg am Rollberg, Bohemia) was a German academic and botanist. He studied medicine at the University of Leipzig, later being named a profes ...

) Maire * ''Rhamnus alaternus'' subsp. ''pendula'' (

Pamp. Renato Pampanini (1875-1949) was an Italian botanist and mycologist. Life Pampanini was born in Valdobbiadene, Italy in 1875. Pampanini studied at the University of Geneva, then in Lausanne and in Friborg. He presented his thesis at the Un ...

) Jafri

Gallery

Aladern Rhamnus alaternus.jpg, Alaterne2.jpg, Rhamnus alaternus, manlike blomme, Meiringskloof, b.jpg, Rhamnaceae - Rhamnus alaternus.JPG,

References

* Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia - Edagricole – 1982 Vol. II, pg. 78
Plants.USDA

Biolib

External links

Acta Plantarum

Schede di Botanica
{{Taxonbar, from=Q721200 alaternus Garden plants of Europe Drought-tolerant plants Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Malta