Pavonia kotschyi Hochst. ex Webb.
Ara. (Egypt): Ikfaleet.
Perennial herbaceous plant or shrub, hispid with stellate hairs, 20-60 cm in height, woody at the base, sometimes it flowers in the first year. Stems herbaceous or woody, branched. Leaf blade 1-3 × 1-2.5 cm, orbicular to broadly ovate, crenate-dentate, pubescent on both sides, base and apex rounded. Petiole 0.5-1.5 cm. Stipules 5-6 mm, filiform, caducous. Flowers 1 cm in diameter, axillary; pedicel 1-2(3) cm, slender, articulated near the apex. Epicalyx with 10-13 parts, 1-1.2 cm, filiform, pectinate, persistent and forming a basket around the fruit. Calyx 5-6 mm; lobes 5 × 1 mm, elliptical. Petals 8 mm, pale yellow. Fruit 6-7 × 4.5 mm (excluding the wings); mericarps 5.5-6 × 3 mm, softly pubescent, generally winged; wings 0.8-1 × 0.6 mm, slightly pubescent. Seeds 2.5 × 1.5 mm, ovoid-trigonous, dark brown, with white and short hairs.
Flowering:
After rainfall, normally in summer in the western Sahara and in autumn-winter towards the coast of the Red Sea.
Fruiting:
Late summer, autumn and winter.
Habitat:
Open forests, savannahs, on very diverse terrains, rocky, stony, sandy soils, in coastal areas on dunes with Panicum turgidum.
Distribution:
Mostly Sahelian, with its area becoming considerably larger in the NE (reaching the southern end of Egypt) and in the SE (reaching Kenya and Somalia). In the Sahara, it reaches towards the N to the Adrar of Mauritania and the Tibesti Massif (Chad). It reaches the Arabian Peninsula towards the E.
Conservation status:
Fairly rare species but widely distributed. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) it is listed as “Endangered”.