Grewia tenax (Forssk.) Fiori
G. populifolia Vahl, Chadara tenax Forssk., G. betulifolia Juss.
Eng.: Small-leaved white raisin, white cross-berry. Ara. (Hassanía): Burchaga, (Niger): ligilayaya, (Sudan): gaddeita, gadem, um ageda, basham, (Egypt): keisa, tamoaat. Tamahaq: Tekarab, tereket, terkoet, tarakat.
Subtropical shrub up to 6 m in height, irregular in shape, often very tortuous, even creeping, due to the harsh edaphic-climatic conditions in which it lives. Stems and old branches with greyish-brown bark; younger branches greenish. Leaves (1.5-4.5 × 1.3-3.5 cm), ± suborbicular; on the same plant there may be broadly ovate or obovate leaves, sometimes slightly wider than long; tip acute or very rounded, slightly undulate, dentate margin, glabrescent, deep green on the upper side and slightly lighter on the underside. Petiole 4-10 mm. Flowers solitary or in pairs. Calyx with 5 sepals oblong, acute, coriaceous, white. Corolla with 5 oblong petals, with emarginate apex, slightly less coriaceous than the calyx, white, shorter than the sepals. Stamens numerous, anthers pale yellow. Ovary with 2 locules, with 4 ovules in each one; stigma with 4 wide lobules. Fruit drupaceous, with 1-4 lobules (usually 2), 3-6 mm in diameter, subglobose, orange.
Flowering:
After rainfall, usually between winter and summer in western Sahara and in autumn-winter in areas close to the Red Sea.
Fruiting:
From autumn to summer.
Habitat:
Thickets, steppes and rocky outcrops of desert and predesert areas. In volcanic lava, sandy soils, depressions in clayey-sandy soil. From sea level to 1,600(1,800) m in altitude.
Distribution:
From tropical Africa to India. In North Africa it is distributed through almost all the southern Sahara, central Sahara (Tefedest, Tassili-n-Ajjer), reaching in the N to the SW of Morocco [mountains between Guelmim and the Drâa River (Jebel Guir, Jebel Taissa, Al Aaiun of the Drâa, etc.)] and the Egyptian area east of the Nile, including the Sinai Peninsula.
Conservation status:
Fairly rare species, but widely distributed. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.