Traganum moquinii Webb ex Moq.
Fre.: Tragan atlantique. Ara.: Al belbal.
Evergreen shrub, hermaphrodite, up to 2 m in height, very ramose. Main stem 4-8 cm in diameter or even wider, with whitish-brown bark, which usually cannot be seen because it is often covered in sand. The woody roots, brown-whitish, emerge frequently onto the open air when the sand on which the shrub grows is removed by the wind. Secondary stems and woody branches white, villous-lanate at the internodes and leaf axils, straggling-erect highly irregular in shape, forming a sparse shrub, but large (up to 5 m in diameter), somewhat intricate. Young branchlets (3-7 mm in diameter), green, ± pubescent, so densely covered with leaves that the branchlet is rarely seen. Leaves (5-10 × 2-7 mm) alternate, sessile, triangular to oval-oblong, ± acute, light green in colour, fleshy, very dense. Flowers solitary at the leaf axil, surrounded by a tuft of villous-lanate hairs. Perianth parts 5, wingless at maturity. Stamens 5. Bracteoles very wide, surrounding the fruit perianth and concrescent with its base. Fruit an ovoid achene arranged horizontally, with a greyish-yellow smooth seed.
Flowering:
Flowers can be seen for most of the year.
Fruiting:
Same as Flowering.
Habitat:
Atlantic Saharan coastal sands.
Distribution:
Canary Islands and NW Africa. On the continent it is very common; it is even the dominant species in much of its range, which comprises the Atlantic coast from close to Essauira (Morocco) to Cape Timiris (Mauritania).
Observations:
A very similar subshrub, but not normally exceeding 0.5 m in height, is Traganopsis glomerata Maire & Wilczek. It differs from the species of the genus Traganum by having flowers in dense terminal glomeruli and seeds arranged vertically. Traganopsis Maire & Wilczek, is a genus with only this interesting endemic species of coastal and subcoastal Atlantic areas in the Anti-Atlas, the Lower Drâa region and NW hamadas of western Sahara.
Conservation status:
Both Traganum moquinii and Traganopsis glomerata are common species and in principle are not considered threatened. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Vulnerable (VU).
