Taverniera aegyptiaca Boiss.
Ara.: Dahseer.
Shrub, up to 1.5(2) m in height, greenish-whitish, with highly branched stems and leaves covered in rigid hairs. Leaves alternate, simple, with petiole 1-2 m, leaf blade 5-8 × 4-8 mm, obovate or obcordate, retuse, glabrous on the upper side and densely pubescent-whitish on the underside. Inflorescence in racemes, axillary, with 1-4 pedicellate flowers, with pedicles c. 2 mm. Calyx 3-4 mm, with 1.5 mm triangular teeth, pubescent and clearly ciliate along the margin. Corolla 1-1.2 cm, pink with purple veins on the standard and light-brown when dry, standard and wings longer than the keel, persistent. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary cylindrical, pubescent. Pod 1.8-2.2 × 0.6 cm, lomentaceous, surrounded by the corolla, flattened, wrinkled and pubescent, whitish, spiny, with a slender beak 2-3 mm, with 2-3 segments, each with 1 seed.
Flowering:
February to May.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Along somewhat stony Saharan watercourses (wadis), sandy-loamy plains and generally on depressions that accumulate greater moisture.
Distribution:
Egypt (eastern desert, coastal areas of the Red Sea and Sinai Peninsula), eastern Sudan, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia.
Conservation status:
A rare species (although it may become locally abundant) and with a small distribution area. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the updated red list of Egypt (Shaltout & Bedair, 2023) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC).
