Bergia suffruticosa (Delile) Fenzl
Ara.(Sudan): Miremit, mirmid, rimit.
Subshrub, hermaphrodite, evergreen, very aromatic, up to 60(80) cm in height, with straight stems, extended-erect, sometimes creeping. Stems opposite, older stems with fissured bark, glabrescent, that peels into papery red-rusty lamina; young stems greener, densely hispid, with straight whitish hairs. Leaves (0.2-3 × 0.1-1 cm) opposite, solitary or grouped in pseudoverticils, sessile or shortly petiolate (petiole up to 3 mm); elliptic to oblanceolate, with serrated and slightly revolute margin, scabrid-pubescent. Stipules (1.5-2.5 mm) linear to lanceolate, sometimes with serrated margin. Inflorescence an axillary cyme with 1-6(8) zygomorphic flowers, pentamerous, pedicels 1-5 mm, pubescent. Sepals (2.5-5 mm), free, ovate-acuminate, pubescent, with membranous margins. Petals similar in size to the sepals, free, obovate-oblong, obtuse, white to pink, persistent. Stamens 10, with the 5 stamens arranged over the petals slightly shorter than the other 5. Ovary ovoid, 5-locular, styles 1-1.2 mm. Fruit an ovoid, pink capsule, about 2 mm long, with numerous reticulated dark brown to blackish seeds.
Flowering:
No data for this region
Fruiting:
No data for this region
Habitat:
Subdesert areas, savannahs and subtropical dry forests, margins and beds of wadis in drier areas
Distribution:
Tropical and subtropical dry areas of Africa and western central Asia. From Mauritania and Senegal up to western India. To the N it reaches up to Tassili-n-Ajjer (Algeria) and the island of Elephantine, Aswan (Egypt).
Conservation status:
A rare but widely distributed species. It is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Algeria it is included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).
