Suaeda pruinosa Lange
S. kochii Tod., Salsola kochii Tod. ex Nyman
Eng.: Sea-blite. Spa.: Sosa, almajo dulce. Fre.: Soude pruineuse. Ara.: Suida, adjerem, sobta, tirbar, essabta.
Evergreen shrublet, hermaphrodite, 1 m in height, ± straggling, upright or reclined, with a very ramose trunk, bark whitish, ± fissured at the base of old specimens and striated at the branches. Plant ± villous in all its parts, especially in the branches and leaves, which are covered by whitish hairs. Leaves (4.5-8 × 1.3-2 mm) alternate, ± cylindrical with an obtuse apex or sometimes slightly acute, very fleshy, green in colour, ± glaucous-pruinose. Inflorescence leaves generally imbricate. Flowers 0.8-4 mm in diameter, light green in colour, sessile, grouped in glomeruli of 3-5 in the axil of the upper leaves. Bracteoles scarious. Perianth consists of 5 parts fused at the base, each accompanied by a stamen. Ovary ± conical. Stigmas 2 or 3, filiform, 0.4-1 mm. Fruit an achene surrounded by perianth parts wingless on the dorsal side. Seed black and smooth.
Flowering:
March to October.
Fruiting:
April to November.
Habitat:
Saline and humid terrains in arid and semiarid areas of the coast and inland.
Distribution:
SE Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and in North Africa. In the latter region, its distribution area is discontinuous; it grows in the Mediterranean area and the northern edge of the Sahara, from Egypt to the northwestern tip of Morocco (Msun, Guercif, Taurirt…). It is a rare species of restricted distribution.
Observations:
Several authors have included S. pruinosa within the variation of S. vera (S. fruticosa), but this separation at a specific level is currently fully accepted.
Conservation status:
It is a rare species but in principle it is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the updated red list of Egypt (Shaltout & Bedair, 2023) it has been considered as Vulnerable (VU).
