Alhagi graecorum Boiss.
Alhagi maurorum subsp. graecorum (Boiss.) Awmack & Lock, A. mannifera Jaub. & Spach., A. maurorum sensu auct., A. tournefortii Heldr.
Eng.: Camel thorn, camelgrass. Spa.: Maná, maná de Persia. Ara: Aqul, adjul, agol, haloboa.
Shrub or suffrutex up to 30-60(100) cm, spiny, hermaphrodite, rhizomatous and stoloniferous, with extensive subterranean rhizomes from which ± herbaceous stolons and stems arise, often rigid, erect or ascending, green-greyish. Branches glabrous or shortly pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate, with stipules 1-2 mm, deciduous, sessile or with petiole 1-2 mm, and leaf blade 0.5-2.5 × 0.2-0.8 cm, entire, oblong-elliptic or obovate, obtuse, sometimes mucronate. Flowers in axillary groups of 1-3 on the young branches, shortly pedicellate. Calyx 3-4 mm, campanulate, with small, pubescent teeth. Corolla 10-12 mm, 3-4 times longer than the calyx, with the inside of the standard, the keel and wings red or an intense purple after anthesis. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary silky or pubescent, subsessile with many ovules, style filiform, glabrous, with small stigma. Pod 10-40 × 2-3 mm, cylindrical, usually curved or arched, smooth or somewhat rugose and glabrescent at maturity, lomentaceous, with irregular narrowing, indehiscent. Seeds 3-8, subspherical or reniform, smooth, brown.
Flowering:
March to September.
Fruiting:
July to October.
Habitat:
Sandy and saline soils, desert or steppic, altered ground. It often behaves like a weed in cultivated areas, ruderal.
Distribution:
Eastern Mediterranean. Greece, Aegean Islands, Cyprus, Rhodes, Turkey, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, reaching to the E to the S of Iran. In North Africa, in the NE area, in the eastern area of the Central Sahara, the Tibesti Massif and in the oases of Libya and Egypt. Invasive species in many countries due to its tolerance of saline soils.
Observations:
In the last decades this taxon has been considered a subspecies of A. maurorum but, recently, Amirkhosravi et al. (2020, 2022), prefer to keep A. graecorum and A. maurorum as two well-differentiated species.
Conservation status:
A relatively common and widely distributed species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.