Halocnemum strobilaceum (Pall.) M. Bieb.
Salicornia strobilacea Pall., H. cruciatum (Forssk.) Tod
Eng.: Jointed glasswort. Spa.: Salicornia, sosa, garbancillo. Fre.: Halocnème à petits cônes. Ara.: Grina, gurina, gueraïna, r’essal, rehsal, sabtta, sabat, hamd, hdidat, shenin, acheryat, hatab ahmar, sabad.
Evergreen shrublet, hermaphrodite, upright 20-150 cm, with a highly branched trunk, brown or greyish-brown bark. Branches erect, sometimes semiprostrate, cylindrical, articulate, green and glabrous. Leaves opposite, sessile, squamiform, so small (± 1 mm) that often the branches of this subshrub have been considered aphyllous (without leaves); green, fleshy and deciduous; born at the apex of each segment. They form very characteristic brachyblasts, composed of leaves of different shapes and sizes, with larger leaves on the exterior and reducing in size towards the centre. This species is easily distinguished from other species of the family for its short and globose lateral branches formed by the inflorescences. Flowers very small (1-2 mm), with perianth of 3 different parts, anthers yellow. Seed is brown in colour, with a verrucose surface.
Flowering:
August to November.
Fruiting:
September to December.
Habitat:
Saline soils with abundant moisture. Coastal salt marshes, chotts, sabkhas and silty banks of inland waterways.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region and surrounding areas from the Atlantic coast to central Asia. In North Africa it is common in all arid and semiarid regions of the interior (Algerian-Moroccan high plateaux and the Sahara), becoming very rare and even disappearing in the western Mediterranean coast, where it is replaced by Arthrocaulon macrostachyum and Sarcocornia fruticosa. Towards the W it reaches the Mediterranean region of Egypt, the Nile Delta and coasts of the Red Sea and the Sinai Peninsula.
Observations:
According to some European authors, H. cruciatum would not be a synonym of H. strobilaceum but a different species, a little bigger, and present throughout North Africa (Bacchetta & al. 2012, Biondi & al. 2013, Lahora & al. 2017 ), something that still remains to be better studied.
Conservation status:
It is a common and even locally abundant species. It is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.