Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Desf.
Ing.: Christ’s thorn jujube. Spa.: Jinjolero espina de cristo. Fre.: Jujubier épine du Christ. Ara.: Zegzeg, zefzuf, ardj, urdj, r’assel, sidr, lotos, nabq, nebga, bawuyer, korno, kornaya (Choua). Tamahaq: Abaqa, âbâkâ, kurna, korna, waernu.
Evergreen tree, hermaphrodite, spiny, up to 6 m in height, with a main trunk, white-greyish branches, and globular or ovoid crown. Stipules spiny, robust, of 2 types: one straight and long (c. 1 cm) and another curved and shorter, sometimes without spines. Leaves alternate (2-8 × 1.5-3 cm), elliptic or ovoid to oblong, obtuse or acute, often mucronulate, obscurely crenate, with only 3 longitudinal veins, glabrous or puberulent only on the underside veins. Inflorescence in axillary cymes, pedicels 3-5 mm. Sepals woolly on the outside. Petals 5, shorter than the sepals, yellow, cucullate, disc 5-angled. Fruit drupaceous, globose, yellowish, 10-15 mm in diameter, fleshy.
Flowering:
September to April.
Fruiting:
October to May.
Habitat:
Oases of hot deserts, wadis, coastal foothills and fields on alluvial soils.
Distribution:
It is a paleotropical species that extends through Saharan and Sahelian Africa, East Africa, reaching for the S to Tanzania, and the Middle East, reaching for the E to Afghanistan. In North Africa it lives in all the Sahel countries, reaching Egypt for the north and possibly also to NE Libya. Cultivated is common in some Saharan oases in Algeria and Libya.
Conservation status:
Z. spina-christi is a rare but widely distributed species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.