Artemisia monosperma Delile
Ara.: Aader.
Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 1(1.2) m in height, erect, green, sometimes slightly glaucescent, glabrous, aromatic. Stems clearly woody, profusely branched from the base. Leaves densely arranged, very different within the same plant but can be grouped into 2 main types: those of the basal and middle part of the stems are pinnatisect (generally oblanceolate), 0.2-0.4 × 1.5-3.5 cm, with lobes or segments from linear to oblong-linear, entire, acute; those of flowering stems are simple, linear-oblong, 0.1-0.4 × 0.2-1 cm, ending in an acute or obtuse tip, often mucronate; all leaves are green or slightly glaucescent, glabrous and ± fleshy. Inflorescence in pyramidal terminal panicle, 12-30 × 15 cm. Capitula 2.5-3 mm in diameter, broadly ovoid, usually slightly or not pendulous, with 30-60 flowers and glabrous receptacle. Involucre glabrous, bracts with scarious margin. Flowers yellow; peripherals flowers female; inner flowers in disc florets and hermaphrodite. Fruit a small obovoid achene, striated, glabrous, with the peculiarity that only 1 achene matures per capitulum (hence the name of the species: monosperma).
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
April to July.
Habitat:
Sandy or sandy-silty plains, beds and margins of wadis, in desert areas, becoming very common in some areas.
Distribution:
Desert and subdesert areas of the SE Mediterranean and nearby areas, from Libya to the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq, reaching Syria in the N. In North Africa it is found in the northern areas of Libya and Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula.
Observations:
A similar species is A. campestris L., also entirely green, with glabrous or glabrescent leaves and involucres (the other species of the genus in the region are greenish-greyish or whitish because they are covered with hairs) and, more specifically, subsp. glutinosa (Besser) Batt. (Fre.: Aurone, Tamahaq: Taguq), a subshrub up to 0.8 m in height, with slightly woody stems. It differs easily from A. monosperma because of its somewhat viscous-glandular leaves, slightly or not at all fleshy. It grows in Eurasia and North Africa (Mediterranean areas and northern Sahara in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya).
Conservation status:
Somewhat common and widely distributed species. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.