Zygophyllum album L.f.
Z. ambylocarpum Forssk., Tetraena alba (L.f.) Beier & Thulin
Spa.: Morsana blanca. Ara.: Bu griba, tartir, haaka, khoressa, ensal, qillam, r’ardem, rotreit, bawwal (the last 2 in Egypt). Tam./Tamahaq: Haggaïa, aggaya, tirta, moïlhe.
Subshrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, farinose-canescent or arachnoid-canescent, 25-50 cm, highly branched stems from the base. Leaves bifoliolate, farinose-pubescent, with stipules (1.5-2.5 mm, broadly triangular, connate at the base, scarious), petioles (0.6-1.2 cm) and leaflets (3-8 mm) cylindrical to obovoid, fleshy. Flowers axillary, solitary, with petioles shorter than the calyx. Sepals (2-3.5 mm) ovate and petals (5-7 mm) white, longly unguiculate. Scales of the filaments membranous and c. ½ of the length of the filament. Fruit a schizocarp (6-9 × 5-7 mm) erect to deflexed, 5-lobed, pyriform, style 0.5-1 mm. Seeds (1.5-2 mm) elliptical, tuberous.
Flowering:
April to July.
Fruiting:
No data for this region
Habitat:
It grows on sandy or rocky soils with certain salinity, in desert and subdesert environment, both coastal and inland.
Distribution:
Species with a Saharan-Arabic optimum (from Mauritania to Sudan and the Horn of Africa), reaching some nearby areas of the northern Mediterranean (southern areas of Spain, Crete, Cyprus and Turkey) and the Arabian Peninsula.
Observations:
Some authors (Boulos, 2000) have considered Zygophyllum propinquum Decne. as a synonym of Z. album or Z. coccineum. This would have a great impact on the distribution of T. alba because Z. propinquum is known from the Sinai Peninsula to Pakistan. However, according to Ghazanfar and Osborne (2015), we consider that such taxon is a separate species, which these authors call T. propinqua (Decne.) Ghaz. & Osborne. Therefore, the ranges of T. alba and T. coccinea only just reach Asia.
A very similar species to Z. album, so similar that it was considered a subspecies, is Z. geslinii Coss. [Z. album subsp. geslinii (Coss.) Quézel & Santa, T. geslinii (Coss.) Beier & Thulin], which differs in that the length of the fruit peduncle is greater than the fruit’s length and the schizocarp is subglobose in shape. Endemic to the Sahara (Algeria, Tunisia and Libya), and also in Chott Chergui, in the Algerian highlands.
Conservation status:
Relatively common species and widely distributed. They are not considered threatened. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Not applicable (NA).