Astragalus camelorum Barb.-Boiss. & Barbey
Eng.: Milkvetch. Fre.: Astragale.
Perennial herb, 30-70 cm in height, hermaphrodite, with woody base and stems highly branched, slender, rigid and erec. Stems white-canescent because of being covered with applied bifurcated hairs. Leaves 5-13 cm, with stipules 1-2 mm, triangular, ciliated; lower leaves with 3-4 pairs of leaflets 1 × 0.5 mm, and upper leaves with 1-2 leaflets, 1-2.5 × 0.3-0.7 cm; all leaflets are deciduous in the summer with the dry rachis usually remaining. Inflorescences in racemes, up to 20-30 cm and up to 16 flowers. Calyx 4-5 mm, covered in black and white hairs. Corolla 1-1.3 cm, papilionoid, white, with purple veins on the base of the standard. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary sessile. Pod 1-1.2 × 0.5-0.6 cm, densely villous, whitish, ending in an indehiscent beak, 1-2 mm. Seeds 2-10, 2-5 × 1.5-2 mm, lenticular, yellowish.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
It grows on cracks of calcareous rocks filled with sand.
Distribution:
Very rare and localised plant, endemic to the northern area of the Sinai Peninsula, described in 1976. Tasa, 30 km E of Ismailia. Wadi el Hag, 15 km NW of Mitla Pass. Wadi el Giddi, 17 km W of Jebel Umm Khashiba.
Observations:
The description is based on the publication of Professor Danin in Israel J. Bot. 25: 214-215 (1976) and later collected by Boulos (1999). It is a not very well known plant.
Conservation status:
A very rare species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; but if it were to be assessed it would probably be listed under a threatened category. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) it is listed as “Endangered”.