Acanthorrhinum ramosissimum (Coss. & Durieu) Rothm.
Antirrhinum ramosissimum Coss. & Durieu
Ara.: Qdem el azreg, ussafu, chebrek, zaâzaâ.
Subshrub, hermaphrodite, up to 0.6(1) m in height, erect, very ramose, often intricate. Trunk promptly branched, sometimes from the base, with rigid branches, usually ending in subspinescent tips. Bark from greyish-brown to whitish. Younger branchlets greenish-whitish, smooth, shiny, glabrous. Leaves alternate (8-15 mm), linear, greenish-whitish and glabrous on both sides, promptly deciduous. Inflorescence in terminal racemes, sparse, with widely spaced flowers. Peduncle and pedicels glabrous. Calyx membranous, green, very open, almost in the shape of a star, with 5 equal lobes about 2 mm, ovate-lanceolate. Corolla with 5 fused petals, 5-7 mm, tubular-campanulate, pink-whitish or light purplish, with pronounced purple venation, with a cylindrical tube with a slightly pronounced saccule at the base and clearly bilabiate limb, with the upper lip ± patent, bipartite, and the lower lip with 3 lobules and a pronounced palate that fully closes the corolla tube. Stamens whitish-pinkish, with yellow anthers. Fruit a globose capsule, glabrous, which opens at 2 pores located at the top. Seeds with 5 longitudinal ridges dorsally and irregularly alveolate ventrally.
Flowering:
Almost throughout the year, especially after rainfall.
Fruiting:
1-2 months after flowering.
Habitat:
Loamy-sandy or sandy-stony desert soils, especially in depressions, in desert and semidesert areas.
Distribution:
Endemic to North Africa, found in the northern Sahara, from Morocco to Tunisia, reaching the central Sahara (Ahaggar ) in the S and up to Mauritania through the western Sahara.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in 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).
