Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Royle
Securinega virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Baill.
Eng.: White berry-bush, common bush-weed. Ara. (Chaua): Karthié-karthié, (Egypt): na’ayiet hindeib.
Shrub or small tree, dioecious, deciduous, up to 6(8) m in height, very ramose with slender branches, sometimes pendulous, usually not spiny but sometimes, in semidesert areas, the branchlets can become somewhat spinescent. Bark light greyish to dark brown. Young branches reddish or purplish, glabrous, with lenticels. Leaves (1-6 × 0.5-3 cm) alternate, entire, obovate-elliptic, obtuse, rarely emarginate, sometimes ending in an acute tip, rounded or cuneate base, greenish-yellowish on the upper side, glaucescent on the underside, with 5-9 pairs of very prominent veins on the underside, glabrous. Stipules (1-2 mm long) triangular-lanceolate, slightly dentate or fimbriate, promptly caducous. Petiole reddish, 2-6 mm, flat, ribbed and somewhat winged. Inflorescence in axillary racemes, shorter than the leaves. Male flowers with a very intense and pleasant smell, with pedicels 3-7 mm, pentamerous, with 2 smaller external sepals (0.7-1 × c. 0.5 mm) lanceolate, greenish-yellowish and 3 internal sepals (1.3-1.5 × 1-1.3 mm) obovate, whitish-green; stamens 5. Female flowers with similar sepals but slightly smaller and persistent; ovary subglobose 1 mm, with 3 styles; pedicels 3-5 mm. Fruit a subglobose berry, wider than long (2-3 × 3-5 mm), first green, when mature a striking white colour, with numerous ovoid seeds, with a smooth and yellowish-brown surface.
Flowering:
No data for this region
Fruiting:
No data for this region
Habitat:
On very diverse terrain, including rocky areas, slopes and mountain summits. Seems indifferent to the type substrate, in warm, semiarid to humid environments.
Distribution:
In tropical areas mainly across the Old World, from Mauritania to the Philippines, reaching from the SE to northern Australia. In North Africa it grows in the Sahel countries, reaching from the NE to the Jebel Elba.
Conservation status:
Relatively common and widespread species. It is not considered threatened at a global level but in North Africa it is a species with a small distribution with very few specimens. 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 “Rare”.