Anabasis oropediorum Maire
A. articulata subsp. oropediorum (Maire) Ozenda
Eng.: Berry bearing glasswort. Spa.: Gurullos. Fre.: Anabasis. Ara.: Adjram, ajram, aârdjam, agram, adjrem remetia, bilbal, belbel djell, bagel. Tam.: Taza, taffa, bender, abelbal, abelbel, ter’am.
Evergreen subshrub, hermaphrodite, erect, with articulated stems highly sought by herbivores, making it very difficult to find a plant that has not been eaten to establish the natural size of this species. It could reach up to 0.8-1 m in height, but it usually grows as a subshrub, rarely exceeding 0.5 m because due to its being nibbled by animals. Main stem strongly woody, up to 4 cm in diameter. Bark greyish on the trunk, white on branches. Branchlets dark green in colour, with thin internodes (10-12 × 1.5-2 mm). Leaves opposite, very small, squamiform, amplexicaul, fused together and with the stem, forming an inverted dome with two elongated ends (up to 4 mm), with a scarious margin, ending in a tip curved backwards. It has little axillary hairiness. Flowers hermaphrodite, solitary, axillary, grouped in spiciform inflorescences at the end of the branchlets. Perianth with 5 membranous unequal parts: the 3 outer ones suborbicular, the 2 inner ones oval and narrower, all obtuse. Fruit a berry with a seed shaped as a spiral, arranged vertically. Fruit perianth with 5 white wings, pink, red or purple.
Flowering:
August to October.
Fruiting:
September to December.
Habitat:
Stony, clayey soils, in very dry, even arid climate.
Distribution:
Distributed through the driest places of the Mediterranean region and most northern areas of the Sahara: Anti-Atlas, eastern High Atlas, Saharan Atlas, plains and steppic plateaux between the Moroccan Atlas systems, the Tellian Atlas and the Saharan Atlas, central Tunisia and N of the Sahara, reaching to the SW up to the region of Zemmur (Mauritania) and to the NE up to the Sinai Peninsula.
Conservation status:
Relatively common and widely distributed species that is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.