Suaeda monodiana Maire
Eng.: Sea-blite. Spa.: Sosa, almajo. Fre.: Soude molle. Ara.: Suit, suida, sueda, cerira, djill, idjell, iskrif, lisrirh, chefchaf, ucera, chervia, suwaid.
Small shrub that can reach up to 60 cm, with a thick taproot, very ramose stems with branches from the current year whitish and leaves green, glabrous, that blacken when dried. Leaves alternate, sessile, small, up to 12 × 3 mm, fleshy, somewhat flattened on the upper side, obovate-globose, obtuse, attenuate at base, which inserts into a short cylindrical tubercle, articulate with the leaf and which stays on the plant and hardens after the leaf falls. Flowers in dense glomeruli, rarely solitary in leaf axils, with bracts and bracteoles scarious, hyaline; central flowers hermaphrodite, with 5 concrescent sepals, ovate, obtuse, 1/3 fused; 5 stamens slightly exserted; ovary conical with 3 stigmas shortly filiform; lateral flowers similar, but without stamens. Fruiting perianth subglobose, loosely covering the fruit.
Flowering:
After the Saharan rains.
Fruiting:
No data for this region
Habitat:
Halophyte plant. Sabkhas, steppic areas and sandy saline soils of coastal and sublittoral desert areas.
Distribution:
Western and central Sahara, reaching to the E up to the surrounding of Ghat (SW Libya).
Observations:
Given the complexity and different interpretations of the genus, some authors like Lebrun (1998) or Dobignard & Chatelain (2011), include this taxon in S. vermiculata. Despite being very similar, it is somewhat well differentiated from the latter by having sessile leaves.
Conservation status:
It is a common species. It is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.