Salsola tetrandra Forssk.
S. tetragona sensu Batt., Muratina zolotarevskyana Maire, Caroxylon tetrandrum (Forssk.) Akhani & Roalson
Spa.: Salado. Fre.: Soude tetrandre. Ara.: Ugrina, bugrina, bu gueriba, hermeck , rhacel, djalla, aradd, lughradh, ghrad, ressal, hermeck, feres, jell, erad, (Egypt): damraan.
Evergreen subshrub, flowers hermaphrodite and unisexual, up to 1 m in height, very ramose from the base, usually with side branches decumbent and prostrate in appearance. Trunk and main branches with whitish bark, fissured lengthwise. Branchlets villous-tomentose, opposite or rarely alternate. Leaves generally opposite, very small (2 × 1.5 mm), ovoid to triangular, obtuse, concave on the upper side and convex on the underside, villous with hairs long (0.2-0.6 mm) and upright, fleshy; very imbricate, giving the branchlet a ± cylindrical or subtetragonal appearance. Flowers solitary at the leaf axil. Perianth consists in male flowers of 4 herbaceous parts with 4 stamens. Hermaphrodite and female flowers with 5 parts and 5 stamens. Fruit an achene surrounded by a winged fruit perianth, wings ± purple, on the dorsal side. Seeds dark, with a smooth surface.
Flowering:
In spring in the area close to the Mediterranean region. In the Sahara, after the rains.
Fruiting:
About 2 months after Flowering.
Habitat:
Plains and depressions in ± desert terrain.
Distribution:
Deserts and steppes from the Atlantic Sahara to the Arabian Peninsula. In North Africa widely scattered throughout northern Sahara, especially common from Figuig to La Güera. Rarer but also present in the steppic high plateaux of eastern Morocco and Algeria.
Observations:
Another similar subshrub, but smaller (20-50 cm) is S. tetragona Delile (S. pachoi Volkens & Asch.) (Ara. Egypt: Tarteer), confused by numerous authors with the previous species. For certain authors the specific separation of these two taxa does not seem justified and the tendency nowadays is to treat these as a single species: Caroxylon tetrandrum (Forssk.) Akhani & Roalson.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species, in principle it is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.