Ononis diffusaTen.

WFO wfo-0000212860 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Ononis diffusa, photographed by José Luis Camaño
fig. a José Luis Camaño, CC0 1.0 / 2006-05-14 / obs. 150796495
Ononis diffusa, photographed by José Luis Camaño
fig. b José Luis Camaño, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150796852
Ononis diffusa, photographed by José Luis Camaño
fig. c José Luis Camaño, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150796381
Ononis diffusa, photographed by José Luis Camaño
fig. d José Luis Camaño, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150796375
Ononis diffusa, photographed by José Luis Camaño
fig. e José Luis Camaño, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150796382
Ononis diffusa, photographed by José Luis Camaño
fig. f José Luis Camaño, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150796151
Ononis diffusa, photographed by José Luis Camaño
fig. g José Luis Camaño, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150796379

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 20 botanical countries

Regions where Ononis diffusa is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Corse, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.Lebanon-SyriaPalestineSinaiCorseGreeceItalyKritiPortugalSiciliaSpain Canary Is.MadeiraSardegna
Native distribution of Ononis diffusa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Corse COR EUROPE
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Palestine PAL
Sinai SIN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 28 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ononis dehnhardtii Ten.
  • Ononis diffusa f. lusitanica Cout.
  • Ononis diffusa var. dehnhardtii (Ten.) Nyman
  • Ononis diffusa var. distantiflora (H.Lindb.) Maire
  • Ononis diffusa var. fallax Maire & Weiller
  • Ononis diffusa var. intermdia (Lange) Cherm.
  • Ononis diffusa var. intermedia (Lange) Cherm.
  • Ononis diffusa var. lusitanica Cout.
  • Ononis diffusa var. micrantha Širj.
  • Ononis diffusa var. micrantha (Lowe) Širj.
  • Ononis diffusa var. sennenii Širj.
  • Ononis diffusa var. serratoides Vierh.
  • Ononis litoralis Moris ex Spreng.
  • Ononis micrantha Lowe
  • Ononis microsperma Lowe
  • Ononis serrata Gren. & Godr.
  • Ononis serrata f. dehnhardtii (Ten.) Fiori
  • Ononis serrata prol. diffusa (Ten.) Samp.
  • Ononis serrata subsp. diffusa (Ten.) Batt.
  • Ononis serrata subsp. diffusa (Ten.) Rouy
  • Ononis serrata var. dehnhardtii (Ten.) Širj.
  • Ononis serrata var. dehnhardtii (Ten.) Arcang.
  • Ononis serrata var. diffusa (Ten.) Fiori
  • Ononis serrata var. distantiflora H.Lindb.

and 4 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.