Farsetia occidentalis B.L.Burtt
F. hamiltonii auct., F. linearis auct.
Fre.: Farsetie. Ara.: Horraiq, hariq, cheliatt, achelyat, ain el arneb, djerba, maruget, sdirat al honch. Tam.: Agaset, agassid.
Subshrub, upright, hermaphrodite, up to 70 cm in height, very ramose, with erect branches covered by a greyish-brown bark. Branchlets silky-whitish due to being covered by numerous appressed hairs. Leaves alternate, up to 25 × 1.5 mm, linear, obtuse, with entire margin, greenish-whitish, villous, sessile. Inflorescence in sparse terminal racemes, with 3-6 flowers each 4-8 mm long. Calyx with 4 oblong-linear sepals, 3-5mm long, covered by whitish appressed hairs. Corolla with 4 sepals, oblong, pink, ± 1/3 longer than the petals. Siliques 2.4 × 0.3-0.5 cm, linear-lanceolate, ending in a filiform style 2.5-3 mm long, densely villous, with short hairs, appressed, whitish; valves 2, separated centrally by a thin membrane. Seeds 5-10 in each valve, suborbicular, very compressed, arranged longitudinally.
Flowering:
November to June, after rainfall in the Sahara.
Fruiting:
1-2 months after flowering.
Habitat:
Desert terrains, silty or rocky; rare in sandy terrain.
Distribution:
Endemic to the deserts and arid zones of NW Africa. Western Saharan Atlas, eastern High Atlas, Anti-Atlas and northern-western Sahara.
Observations:
A very similar species is F. aegyptia Turra (F. oblongata C.Presl, F. ovalis Boiss.), (Ara.: Horraïq, dahaian, goreibi. Tamahaq: Ourtemess) woody only at the base, well differentiated for being smaller in size and especially for having flowers with petals and sepals of the same length, and for having much wider, oblong to suborbicular siliques. Its distribution is wider in the region, appearing across arid and desert areas from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, penetrating even into the Mediterranean steppes of the High Muluya. Based on the number of seeds per siliqua and other characters, several subspecies and varieties have been described in North Africa; however, they are currently considered as part of the normal variability of the species. One of these was var. ovalis (Boiss.) Post, present at least in the Algerian Sahara, with only 1-2 seeds per siliqua.
Conservation status:
Common and widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.