Desmidorchis retrospiciens Ehrenb.
D. acutangula Decne, Caralluma retrospiciens (Ehrenb.) N.E.Br., C. acutangula (Decne.) N.E. Br., C. tombuctuensis (A. Chev.) N.E. Br.
Hermaphrodite plant, succulent, cactiform, with stems up to 0.8(1.5) m in height, robust, upright, of a pale green-greyish colour; stems are lignified at the base and they stop growing after flowering. Stems with 4 wings (or angles), narrow, with concave angles in between them, which gives the stem an “H” shape. On these angles, there are recurved-deltoid teeth. Leaves ovate and promptly caducous. Flowers arranged in umbelliform cymes, sessile at the end of stems and forming dense globose heads with 20-80 flowers, that open ± at the same time. Flowers with pedicels of 4-6 cm; with corollas of 15-20 mm in diameter, rotate, with 5 ovate-triangular lobes, black-purplish, with numerous pits of beige color, without striped bands, without cilia at the apex. Corona double and pentamerous, with external lobes divided into 2 small recurved horns, and internal lobes as long as the anthers. Follicle (10-15 × 0.4-0.6), smooth, linear, slightly curved and attenuate at the apex.
Flowering:
Information not available.
Fruiting:
Information not available.
Habitat:
Rocky desert terrain, from sea level up to 1,000 m.
Distribution:
From the Atlantic coast of the Sahara and the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, Kenya and Uganda, reaching the Arabian Peninsula in the NE. In North Africa, it has 2 disjunct centres of distribution, one in the western Sahara and the other in the mountains near the Red Sea, in Sudan and the SE end of Egypt.
Conservation status:
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 the vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) D. retrospiciens (cited as Caralluma retropisciens) has been considered as “Indeterminate”.