Prickly Wolf

Description

The prickly wolf or penquilla de monte, Caralluma europaea, is a species present only in North Africa, southern Sicily and southeastern Spain in the Region of Murcia and the Province of Almería. It is a creeping, fleshy, cactus -like plant, although it has nothing to do with this family of plants. It blooms throughout the year, although rarely in winter and more frequently between April-May and in autumn. The flowers are red and give off an unpleasant odor to attract flies for pollination. The fruit is a capsule shaped like large elongated horns. It inhabits very sunny rocky slopes (lithosoils), generally in cracks, in arid environments and close to the sea. In Spain it is only found in the southeast of the peninsula and in the Chafarinas Islands. In the province of Almería: Tabernas Desert, Uleila del Campo, Cabo de Gata-Níjar and El Palmer Natural Park. In the Region of Murcia in the municipalities of Torre Pacheco in the Cabezo Gordo protected area, in Cartagena in the Sierra de la Muela, Cabo Tiñoso and Roldán natural park, on the Isla del Ciervo (Natural Park of open spaces and islands del Mar Menor ), as well as on Isla Plana, in Mazarrón, and between Águilas and San Juan de los Terreros. In the interior of the Region, it has been described in Ulea and at the base of the Sierra Espuña Natural Park, in Alhama de Murcia. In the north of the Region of Murcia, as well as in the provinces of Alicante and Albacete, another much rarer species of this same genus grows, Caralluma munbyana. Outside of Spain, it is found in Italy (islands of Linosa and Lampedusa) and in North Africa, including Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, and the Middle East: Israel and Jordan.