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Fagonia L.

The genus Fagonia is distributed only through warm and arid areas across all continents, except for in Australia, with high concentrations of species in the Horn of Africa, Morocco and Baja California in Mexico. In many of these areas Fagonia forms an important part of the vegetation. The genus consists of shrubs, subshrubs and herbs with spiny or pointed stipules, purplish or pinkish petals and a characteristic capsule. In North Africa there are about 15 species, distributed throughout the region. Here, only F. harpago can be considered shrubby or subshrubby. The other 2 ± woody species in North Africa from the same genus, but usually smaller, are:

F. orientalis C.Presl [Zygophyllum orientale (C. Presl) Christenh. & Byng, F. flamandi Batt., F. tenuifolia Steud. & Houhst. ex Boiss.], a subshrub with woody stems, whitish, trifoliolate leaves, with linear-lanceolate leaflets, spiny straight stipules, much shorter than the leaves, large flowers that open only at night. It grows on sand and sandy soils originating from granite rocks or gneisses, up to c. 2,100 m above sea level. Found mainly across the plateaux and mountains of the central Sahara, its distribution is somewhat uncertain; it seems to grow towards the W in a vast desert area between Algeria and Niger, and towards the E up to Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula.

F. zilloides Humbert [Zygophyllum zilloides (Humbert) Christenh. & Byng], is a woody species, similar to the shrubs of the genus Zilla, but smaller in size (up to 50 cm). It is a glabrous plant, glaucescent, trifoliolate leaves, subspinose, promptly deciduous and spiny stipules very long and strong. It grows on sand or gravel, ± rich in limestone and occasionally on saline soil or as a weed in farmland, in c. 430-1,600 m above sea level. It is endemic to North Africa, in the western Sahara, from the Zemmour region to Tafilalet and nearby mountains to Ugarta, reaching towards the N up to the plains of Ouarzazate and Skoura; it has also been cited (Beier, 2005) more towards the N on the Atlantic Morocco and the Middle Atlas.

Relatively common and widely distributed species. 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) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC). In Algeria F. orientalis (as F. flamandi) is included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).

Updated by: J.F. Mota, J. Güemes & F.J. Pérez García.