Pulicaria undulata (L.) C.A.Meyer
P. crispa (Fossk.) Oliv.
Fre.: Pulicaire à feuilles crispées. Ara.: Allinah, arfedj, aalaattacha, tafsa, tassa, githgath, dithdath, sabad (last 3 in Egypt). Tam.: Tanatfirt, tanetfert, tenadfert, êmeg, tâdrint, âmmayo, teyninidyan.
Subshrub evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 0.8(1) m in height, hemispherical in shape; it can reach up to 2.5 m in diameter at the base; herbaceous in overall appearance, the base of the stems sometimes distinctly woody. Stems and branches upright, long, slender. Younger branches tomentose-whitish, then glabrescent. Leaves linear-oblong, obtuse, sessile but not amplexicaul, with undulate-crispate margin; glabrescent and green on the upper side, more vilous and lighter on the underside. Inflorescence in terminal capitula, solitary, very small for the genus, 5-10(15) mm, with yellow ray florets (with 3 lobes) barely longer than the disc florets. Achenes glabrous, with pappus formed by an inner row of 7-10 long setae, feathery at the top, and an outer row of short scales fused at the base.
Flowering:
Almost all year round, especially after rainfall.
Fruiting:
1-2 months after flowering
Habitat:
Various types of terrains but mainly loamy-sandy or stony depressions, beds and edges of wadis, in desert and semidesert areas.
Distribution:
Widely distributed throughout the Sahara and Middle East deserts.
Observations:
There is a similar species, also with highly undulate-crispate leaves, but slightly or not woody: P. incisa (Lam.) DC. (Ara.: Shaay el-gabal, rabot. Tamahaq: Tamayut), which differs by its young green stems, not whitish, leaves auriculate at the base and ray florets (with 3 lobes) larger and more showy. It is also widely distributed through North Africa, but it seems absent in Morocco and Tunisia. It is essentially a Saharan plant present from Mauritania to Eritrea and Ethiopia to the S, reaching almost to the Mediterranean in Libya and Egypt.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.