Palosangre (Marcetella moquiniana)

Highly branched shrub that can reach up to 4 m. Branches have a scale-like covering, are reddish-brown and redder near the tip, hence the common name (blood stick). Leaves are composite and arranged in terminal rosettes, pinnate, glabrous and light green or glaucous, 7-15 leaflets with crenate margins. This dioecious species has lax inflorescences of numerous reddish and white flowers. This Canary Island endemic is relegated to Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Gomera, where it is a common feature of thermophile vegetation from 300-1,000 m, although it usually thrives at up to 600 m. It is more common in Tenerife than the other two islands. This highly ornamental plant is much used in gardening. A nitrophilous and rather ruderal species, it often escapes into the wild through easy dispersal, colonizing abandoned cultivated terraces and disturbed ground. The genus Marcetella is made up of just two species: M. moquiniana and M. maderensis, the latter a native of Madeira.