Maerua crassifolia Forssk.
M. uniflora Vahl, M. rigida R.Br., M. arabica J.F. Gmel., M. hirtella Chiov.
Eng.: Atil. Spa.: Atil. Fre.: Atil. Ara.: Atil, mordjan, adjar, azar, serrah, sarah, aneb, libti, kamoaab, kowage, kowoge, sareh, sarha, sereh, surrakh (last 6 in Sudan), atilae (Niger), zerhaye (Choua). Tam.:/Tamahaq: Adiar, agar, aggar, taggar, teghert, terert, adjer, adjem, arkerma.
Shrub or small deciduous tree, 2-6(10) m in height, hermaphrodite, sometimes with umbrella-shaped crown. Trunk straight or slightly tortuous, with bark greyish, smooth, with some longitudinal ribs; it may become rough and spiny. Wood whitish, very compact. Branches straight and rigid, rugose, very characteristic, with grey bark on older branches and reddish on younger ones. Leaves simple (5-20 × 3-7 mm), alternate, cuneate at the base, sessile, arranged in fascicles on short branchlets (brachyblasts) or singly on young branches. Leaves ovate, oblong, obovate or oblong-cuneiform, obtuse, mucronate, entire, green-whitish, glabrous or finely pubescent. Stipules very small, petiolate, caducous. Flowers axillary, small (up to 1.2 cm), grouped in sparse corymbiform cymes, frequently solitary, geminate or ternate. Calyx with 3-4 sepals, ovate-lanceolate (4-7 mm), yellowish-green and finely pubescent on the outside. Petals 0. Stamens numerous (20-40), with greenish filaments. Gynophore 1-2 cm. Fruits globose, edible berries, sometimes solitary, but more frequently arranged in rows, connected to each other by a fleshy tissue with the same surface as the berry, giving the appearance of a single subcylindrical fruit (2.5-7 × 0.7-1.5 cm), composed of several aligned spherical segments, light green when ripe. Each berry or spherical segment contains 1-6 globose seeds, about 5 mm in diameter and smooth surface.
Flowering:
February to April, or after rainfall.
Fruiting:
About 2 months after flowering.
Habitat:
On very diverse terrains in desert (mainly in floodplains) and subdesert areas.
Distribution:
Sahara and Sahel, Arabian Peninsula, Iran, reaching towards the E up to Pakistan. In North Africa, it is common in western Sahara, from Senegal to SW Morocco (southern watershed of Jebel Bani), central and southern Sahara. In eastern Sahara it reaches to the N to eastern Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula.
Observations:
The fruits are edible and the leaves are used as a febrifuge, analgesic, antibiotic and antiseptic. A similar species, with a distribution close to the southern boundary of the area considered in this project, is M. angolensis DC., a tree that can reach 10 m in height and has larger leaves (4-10 cm), often notched, with long petioles. A species widely distributed through the African tropics, reaching towards the S to Angola, Mozambique and South Africa; towards the N it reaches the S of Mauritania and the Air Massif in Niger.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) M. crassifolia is listed as “Rare”. In Algeria it is included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).