Sarcocornia fruticosa (L.) A.J. Scott
Salicornia fruticosa (L.) L., S. arabica auct. Afr. N., S. europaea var. fruticosa L.
Eng.: Shrubby swampfire. Spa.: Sosa alacranera, hierba del jabón, cirialera. Fre.: Salicorne frutescente. Ara.: Belbel, rherdam, rhdem, hammad, khezam, abu saaq, hatab (the last 2 in Egypt).
Evergreen subshrub, hermaphrodite, up to 1.50 m in height, always upright, very ramose. Branches opposite; fertile branches herbaceous, also opposite, articulate, cylindrical, with all segments cylindrical, green and glabrous, seemingly without leaves. Leaves very small, sessile, fused together on the apex of the branch segments, forming a thin hyaline ring. Inflorescence a cylindrical and articulate spike, thinner than in Arthrocaulon macrostachyum (2.5-4 mm in diameter). Flowers grouped in 3 by 3 at the base of the branch segments; the central flower larger than the lateral ones; perianth of a single part, ± triangular-tetragonal or pentagonal in cross section; anthers yellow. When flowers fall, they leave a cavity divided by two membranes into three cells of the same size of the flowers it contained. Fruit an achene, inside the perianth. Seed brown or greyish-brown with short and conical hairs, not curved.
Flowering:
August to November.
Fruiting:
September to December.
Habitat:
Saline terrains with abundant moisture, coastal salt marshes, chotts, sabkhas and silty beds of inland waterways.
Distribution:
Worldwide distribution: Old World, Polynesia and Central and South America. In North Africa it is common (it is often the dominant species in some wetlands) from the Mediterranean to the Sahara and from the Atlantic to Asia Minor.
Observations:
Another species of the same genus —creeping prostrate-ascendant subshrub with flexible branches, radicant and only 10-30 cm in height— is S. perennis (Mill.) A.J.Scott (Salicornia perennis Mill.), with elongated spikes (5-7 cm) and seeds with hooked hairs, of Mediterranean distribution, with some populations in the northern Sahara, especially in western Sahara, where it reaches towards the S along the coast up to Arguin in Mauritania. S. perennis subsp. alpini (Lag.) Castrov. can reach a larger size, with tortuous and rigid stems up to 70-80 cm and shorter spikes. It grows in the Iberian Peninsula and at least in NW Morocco, in the Muluya River basin, and in NE Algeria. There are many transitional forms between the taxa of this genus due to frequent hybridization.
Conservation status:
Both species are common and even abundant locally. They are not considered threatened. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) S. fruticosa has been considered as Least Concern (LC). In the updated red list of Egypt (Shaltout & Bedair, 2023) it has also been considered as Least Concern (LC).
