Thymelaea dioica, (Gouan) All.

15. T. dioica (Gouan) All. View in CoL , Auct. FI. Pedem. 9 (1789).

Dwarf shrub 20-50 cm, with erect or decumbent, often tortuous, branched stems covered with raised leaf-scars; young shoots glabrous. Leaves 3-12 x 0-75-2-5 mm, linear to cuneate-oblanceolate, glabrous. Flowers unisexual and hermaphrodite, solitary or in pairs, subtended by 2-6 linear bracts, c. 1-5 mm long. Hypanthium 4-7 mm, tubular, usually glabrous; sepals 1-5-2 mm, triangular. Fruit pubescent. • Mountains o f S. W. Europe, from N. W. Italy to the W. Pyrenees and S.E. Spain. Ga Hs It.

In S.E. Spain (Sierra de Cazorla and adjacent ranges) this species is represented by cushion-like plants with very short, tortuous, much-branched stems, leaves not more than 3-5 x 1-25 mm and often less, and flowers with short, rather obtuse sepals and sometimes a few hairs on the hypanthium. They have been distinguished as T. granatensis Pau ex Lacaita , Cavanillesia 3: 40 (1930). Plants from exposed stations in the Pyrenees, however, provide a transition in all these characters to the typical plants of the S.W. Alps.