Citation: Raft, Sylva Tell. 2 (1838).

Derivation: Derived from retam the Arabic name for the broom bush.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Virgate shrubs or small trees; branches erect or ascending, sometimes pendent, silky-hairy or glabrous with green grooved twigs; leaves early deciduous, exstipulate, simple, small, narrow.

Racemes lateral, few- to many-flowered; calyx urceolate, campanulate or turbinate, 2-lipped; petals white to yellow, much longer than the calyx, claws of the petals adnate to the staminal tube; anthers alternately basifixed and longer and dorsifixed and shorter; standard plicate, oblong to obovate-orbicular; wings longer than the keel; stamens all connate into a closed tube; ovary sessile or shortly stipitate, 2- to few-ovuled, style filiform, glabrous, stigma papillose.

Pod ovoid to globose, indehiscent or finally incompletely dehiscent along the ventral suture; seeds 1 or 2, exarillate, globular, yellow to brown-black.

Distribution:  About 5 species mainly in the Mediterranean and Sahara.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available