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Gymnocarpos decandrus Forssk.

G. fruticosus Pers. [nom. illeg.], G. salsoloides Webb ex Christ

Spa.: Matocosta, milengrana.   Ara.: Jefna, djefna, jrad, khachraa, gurd.

Shrub, small in size, usually less than 50 cm in arid areas and under intensive grazing, but in areas with better soils and climate it can reach up to 80(100) cm, erect or suberect, woody base, tortuous. Lower branches rigid, erect or ± divaricate, bark greyish striated lengthwise. Branchlets whitish, glabrous or slightly villous. Leaves opposite or sometimes whorled, linear-subcylindrical, fleshy, sessile, glaucous, up to 15 × 1.8 mm. Stipules scarious, ovate-triangular, short, up to 1 mm, brownish, ± villous and with a ciliate margin. Inflorescence in terminal glomeruli, rarely axillary. Bracts linear-subulate, foliaceous, mucronate, smaller than the flowers. Flowers small Calyx 7-9 mm, herbaceous and later hardened, with 5 sepals fused at the base in a short tube, ± villous, with 15 nerves, oblong to subcylindrical. Calyx teeth divergent and larger than the tube, linear, greenish to reddish and with a scarious margin and apex obtuse and mucronate, glabrous but somewhat hairy at the apex. Without petals, but with 5 staminoids that arise from the disk, opposite to the sepals, 1-2/3 the length of the sepals, linear. Stamens 5 with subulate filaments and anthers medifixed, oblong-oval. Ovary perigynous, ovoid, ± concrescent with the calyx tube. Style ± the same length as the sepals, with a trifid apex. Fruit a membranous achene.