Nitraria retusa (Forssk.) Asch.
Peganum retusum Forssk., N. tridentata Desf., Berberis africana Hebenstr. & Ludw. incl. N. schoberi auct. Afr. N. non L.
Eng.: Salt tree, nitre bush. Fre.: Nitraire à feuilles retuses. Ara.: Rhardek, dumuc, rhordg, gharqad, ghardaq, (the fruit): damuch, darhmus, (as toothpaste): suak. Tam.: Atarzim, atazzim, aguerzim, guerzim.
Evergreen shrub, spiny, up to 2.5 m in height, very ramose, erect. Stems and old branches tortuous, with greyish-brown bark, slightly fissured in thicker and older parts, with longitudinal striations, irregular in the branches of a few years. Younger branchlets greenish. Spines long, straight, though not abundant. Leaves alternate or fasciculate, otherwise different depending on the habitat. In coastal areas, leaves are 1-3 × 0.5-1.5 cm, cuneiform, widely spatulate; with apex retuse, dentate or crenate, with 2-5 wide teeth, sometimes slightly marked, so that the apex appears entire; attenuate at the base ending in a short petiole, very fleshy, glabrous, green on both sides, although sometimes glaucous or somewhat canescent. Leaves from inland areas of the Sahara are smaller (0.5-2 × 0.15-0.5 cm), oblong-spatulate, with obtuse apex, mucronate, longly attenuated at the base ending in a short petiole, slightly or not fleshy. Inflorescence in a paniculate corymb, terminal. Flowers with pedicel 5-12 mm. Calyx with 5 small oval-triangular sepals, green, fleshy. Corolla with 5 petals, obovate or obovate-oblong, open in the shape of a star, hispid, white. Stamens 15, with yellow anthers. Fruit a type of drupe, from broadly pyriform in maritime forms, to longly ovoid in inland forms, approximately 1 cm, red, edible and refreshing; it contains one seed.
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
June to August.
Habitat:
Desert plains and silty-sandy semidesert areas, depressions, riverbeds, always on slightly saline soils, coastal and inland areas.
Distribution:
Desert areas of the Middle East, tropical Africa (Senegal to Sudan), subtropical and northern Africa (from the S Morocco —S of the river Sus— to Egypt, where it reaches to the N to the Mediterranean coast).
Observations:
The large differences between plants growing in the coastal regions compared to the plants from the inland Saharan region meant that the latter were long considered as a different species, N. schoberi L., a species from SE Europe and Asia (from the Mediterranean to China) that is it not found in Africa.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. (N. schoberi is, so it is important not to confuse the two taxa). In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC). In Algeria it is included, as N. schoberi, in its List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012). In the updated red list of Egypt (Shaltout & Bedair, 2023) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC).