Crotalaria thebaica (Delile) DC.
Spartium thebaicum Delile
Eng.: Rattlepod, rattlebox. Ara.: Natash.
Subshrub or suffrutex, up tp 30(60) cm, hermaphrodite, intricate, often with numerous dead yellowish branches that seem spinescent. Stems villous, with brown hairs ± branched; and young branches, delicate, cylindrical, with few leaves, green and with simple, stiff hairs, some short (c. 0.3 mm) and dense, and others long (c. 1 mm), less numerous. Leaves alternate, simple, 4-8 mm, sessile, often somewhat coriaceous, often deciduous in the driest periods, with leaf blade oblong-lanceolate, ovate or suborbicular, undulate or reflexed at the apex, densely hairy on both sides. Flowers solitary or forming terminal or axillary pauciflorous racemes, pedicellate, with pedicel 1-3 mm, with a linear-subulate bract at the base and 8 micro-bracteoles, alternate, all hairy. Calyx c. 6 mm, submembranaceous, whitish, with deep teeth, subequal, acute. Corolla 5-7(10) mm, papilionoid, yellow, sometimes reddish, with glabrous standard and purplish or brown venation. Androecium monadelphous. Stamens glabrous, concrescent only up to 1/3 into a dorsally split sheath. Anthers alternating between long basifixed and short dorsifixed. Ovary oblong, sessile, rarely stipitate, with 4 ovules. Style incurved or reflexed, with long hairs surrounding the capitate stygma. Pod 5-8(10) mm long, from oblong to suborbicular, sessile, coriaceous, inflated, longer than the calyx, yellow or ochre. Seeds 2-3, 3 × 2.5 mm, smooth and very shiny.
Flowering:
After sporadic rains.
Fruiting:
1-2 months after Flowering.
Habitat:
Mainly along desert river beds, wadis.
Distribution:
Central and eastern Sahara, N of Chad, Sudan, S of Libya and S of Egypt.
Observations:
A closely related species is C. aegyptiaca Benth. It is a ramose shrub that can reach up to 60 cm in height, with a woody base and stems ribbed, glabrous or with very applied hairs. Usually deciduous at flowering or with leaves with 1 leaflet 3-8 × 2-3 mm, ovate to oblong-elliptical, pubescent, without stipules; flowers in racemes of (4)6-9 scattered flowers, flowers about 1 cm, yellow, with reddish venation; pod 1 cm, ellipsoid, glabrous, with 2-6 smooth seeds, of approximately 3 mm in diameter. Distributed in southern Palestine, northern Somalia, Arabia, UAE, Oman, Yemen. In North Africa it has only been cited in Egypt, sandy plains and wadis. Also very closely related is C. arenaria Benth., often considered a synonym of C. thebaica. It is a prostrate chamaephyte that does not exceed 30 cm in height, from southern Sahara.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.