Fredolia aretioides (Moq. & Coss. ex Bunge) Ulbr.
Anabasis aretioides Moq. & Coss. ex Bunge
Fre.: Chou-fleur de Bou-Hammama. Ara.: Dega, amama, achnud, sellae, akennud, takkay.
Evergreen subshrub, hermaphrodite, extremely dense, hemispherical, usually with sand embedded between the leaves and branchlets, which gives it the appearance (and hardness) of a rounded rock (in the Jebel Bani, N of Aouinet Torkoz, it adopts a curious prostrate and elongated shape). In the more humid and sheltered areas, it can reach up to 1 m in height and 1.5 in diameter at the base, but it usually does not exceed 0.5 m in height. Very ramose from the base. Branches abundant, bark greyish-brown and then whitish. Branchlets extremely dense, tight against each other, very short (2-5 cm), with such short internodes that are hardly seen between the leaves. Leaves (4-7 × 1-3 mm) opposite, amplexicaul, fused, very dense, almost imbricate, ovate-lanceolate, trigone, ending in a spinescent mucro slightly curved backwards, fleshy, glabrous except at the base where they have lanate hairs, green-whitish in colour, glaucescent. Flowers hermaphrodite, solitary, axillary, arranged in small groups (2-5) at the end of the branchlets. Perianth with 5 membranous subequal parts, oval, obtuse. Fruit a berry with a seed shaped as a spiral, arranged vertically. Fruit perianth with 5 parts, each with a wing, whitish to purple.
Flowering:
August to November.
Fruiting:
September to December.
Habitat:
Stony, sandy or silty soils in hamadas, in desert and subdesert environment.
Distribution:
Endemic to north-western Sahara. Towards the N —in Morocco— it reaches the upper valley of Ziz, between Er-Rich and Assoul. In Algeria, in the Beni Unif region, Bechar, the Guir Hamada in the Beni Abbes region and in the hamadas between the mountains of Ugartha, becoming much rarer towards the NE, where it reaches S of Aures, close to the Tunisian border. Towards the S it has been cited in Mali.
Conservation status:
In the past it used to be a common species, with large specimens covering vast tracts of land in SE Morocco, but an abusive harvest of this species (we have seen whole truck loads) is disappearing this spectacular landscape. Large specimens are almost all gone and today it is an increasingly rare species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.