Cornulaca monacantha

Description

Cornulaca monacantha is a species of flowering plant in the genus Cornulaca, that is now included in the family Amaranthaceae, (formerly Chenopodiaceae). It is a desert plant found in the Middle East and the Sahara, and the southern end of its range is considered to delineate the edge of the desert. In Arabic it is known as had and djouri, and the Tuareg people call it tahara.It was first described in 1813 by the French botanist Alire Raffeneau Delile. Cornulaca monacantha is a straggling, branched, woody shrub growing to a height of 60 centimetres (24 in). The stubby bluish-green leaves are scale-like and clasp the greyish, wiry stems. They each have a single stiff spine at the tip, hence the specific name monacantha. The leaves turn yellow or white when the plant is dead. The orange-brown flowers appear singly in the woolly leaf axils between August and November. The calyx and petals are spiny, the perianth lobes being linear and leathery, with jagged tips. One petal in each flower extends downwards in a long spine. The seeds are held vertically in an erect, flattened seed pod. The plant is wind resistant and has a long taproot.