Ononis crispa L.

Family: LEGUMINOSAE

Genus: Ononis

Sinònims: Ononis natrix L. subsp. crispa (L.) Font Quer et Marcos

Catalan common name: Motxa.

Province distribution: Balearic Islands.

Distribution in the islands: Menorca. Cabrera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): Mediterranean (Balearic)

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Chameophyte. Nanophanerophyte.

Habitats: Beaches and dunes, sandy soils. Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Rocky coastlines. Pine wood and shrubland with rosemary and thyme garigue. Rocky coastlines and dunes. Also in pine woods, and sometimes in fields and road sides.

Characteristics: A shrub that can be characterised by its very sticky leaves; they are leaves with three or five leaflets. It produces large, yellow flowers at the top of the branches, the largest petal (the vexillum) has red lines on the back. Ononis crispa only lives in Menorca and Cabrera, generally in coastal environments. It looks very much like Ononis natrix, which it has been mistaken for many times, this has less sticky leaves and it never produces leaves with five leaflets. It is also very similar to Ononis zschackei, but the latter lives in the central zone of the Serra de Tramuntana in the rocky walls. All these species have also been treated as a different subspecies of Ononis natrix.