Saharanthus ifniensis (Caball.) M.B.Crespo & Lledò
Limoniastrum ifniense (Caball.) Font-Quer, Lerrouxia ifniensis Caball., Caballeroa ifniensis (Caball.) Font Quer
Spa.: Salado de Ifni. Fre.: Statice d’Ifni. Ara.: Ziyyat.
Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 2 m in height, very ramose, irregular in size, upright stems and branches. The overall appearance of this shrub is green-yellow, not white-ashy like in L. monopetalum and L. guyonianum. Bark greyish-brown, in younger branchlets green or reddish. Leaves (20-60 × 10-25 mm) spatulate or obovate-spatulate, with a rounded tip, emarginate or acute, narrowing progressively towards the base, where again they widen to clasp the stem (though not embracing it completely when they are grouped in dense rosettes, they do embrace it entirely when growing solitary in younger branchlets that arise from the rosette). Inflorescence leafless, very ramose, with white flowers, relatively small (8-11 mm diameter). Calyx tubular, not angular, about 5 mm, with 5 small terminal teeth, pinkish, partly included within a bract barely showing its upper half. Corolla of one part, bottom half tubular, very short in proportion to the length of the lobes which give the aspect of very expanded free petals. Its outline is obovate. Fruit minute, oval, membranous, inside the persistent calyx.
Flowering:
March to October
Fruiting:
May to November.
Habitat:
Sandy-silty soils, depressions where there is a higher edaphic humidity, along desert and semidesert coastal areas. Towards inland areas it penetrates until the oceanic influence disappears entirely.
Distribution:
Endemic to the NW edge of the Sahara: from Ifni (Morocco) to the N, up to the Saguía el Hamra region to the S. Towards inland it reaches the eastern Zemmour region (Mauritiana) and the lower Draa (Algeria).
Observations:
A rare species with a restricted Distribution.
Conservation status:
Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.