Prasium majus L.
Eng.: White hedge nettle, Mediterranean prasium. Spa.: Chugal. Fre.: Prasium. Ara.: Uden el kheruf, chahmet el atrus, khobeizet mama, chugal, chuqeb, anab ed dib, shofal (Egypt).
Subshrub, erect or lianescent, hermaphrodite, with sarmentose stems up to 1.5 m long. Stems and older branches with greyish-brown bark. Young branches longitudinally striated, green, glabrous or glabrescent. Leaves opposite (1-4 × 0.6-2 cm), ovate, obtuse or acute, with rounded or more frequently cordate base, petiolate, with crenate margin, glabrescent and green on both sides. Inflorescence in terminal racemes, sometimes with a fair amount of leaves. Flowers axillary, solitary, rarely in pairs or in small groups of 3. Calyx with 5 subequal lobes, triangular-lanceolate, green. Corolla white-pinkish, bilabiate; the upper lip in the shape of a helmet, entire or divided into 2 small lobules; the lower lip with 3 well defined lobules, with a larger central lobule. Stamens 4, beneath the upper lip. Fruit composed of black nutlets, trigone, enclosed within the accrescent calyx.
Flowering:
February to May.
Fruiting:
May to June.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops, always in places with abundant edaphic and/or atmospheric moisture. From semiarid (along waterways) to subhumid bioclimate, on inframediterranean and thermomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa it is widely distributed throughout the Mediterranean area, reaching in the S to the Anti-Atlas. In dry and semiarid areas it is also found in shady and humid places of rocky outcrops.
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), P. aurea is listed as “Indeterminate”.
