''Ceratonia oreothauma'' is a species of tree native to

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

and

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

Description

''Ceratonia oreothauma'' is a small tree with gnarled branches and rough bark which grows up to 8 meters high. It is evergreen, with singly-pinnate leaves bearing up to 20 leaflets. ''Ceratonia oreothauma'' flowers in March and April. Flowers are either purely male or purely female, with minute and sterile primary

anther The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

Distribution and habitat

''Ceratonia oreothauma'' has two widely separated populations which are classified as separate subspecies. ''C. oreothauma'' ssp. ''oreothauma'' is found in a single valley on Jebel Aswad in the eastern

Hajar Mountains The Hajar Mountains (, ''The Rock (geology), Rocky Mountains'' or ''The Stone Mountains'') are one of the highest mountain ranges in the Arabian Peninsula, shared between northern Oman and eastern United Arab Emirates. Also known as "Oman Mounta ...

of Oman between 900 and 2000 meters elevation.Lewis, Gwilym. "Plants in Peril". ''Curtis' Botanical Magazine'', Volume 2, Issue 4, November 1985, Pages 380-382. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8748.1985.tb00251.x ''C. oreothauma'' subsp. ''somalensis'' occurs in the mountains of

between 1500 and 1800 meters elevation.Hillcoat, D., G. Lewis, and B. Verdcourt. "A New Species of Ceratonia (Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae) from Arabia and the Somali Republic." Kew Bulletin 35, no. 2 (1980): 261-71. Accessed December 4, 2020. doi:10.2307/4114570.

Conservation

The population trend of subspecies ''oreothauma'' is not well understood. The eastern portion of its population is in Wadi Siren Nature Reserve. The northwestern portion of the population is not regenerating. The subspecies is considered Vulnerable. The known populations of subspecies ''somalensis'' in Somaliland are very small. Its habitat is unprotected, and is under pressure from human use. The subspecies is considered

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

.Thulin, M. 1998
''Ceratonia oreothauma'' subsp. ''somalensis''

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological spe ...

1998: e.T32490A9704577. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.1998.RLTS.T32490A9704577.en. Accessed 27 March 2023.

Systematics

'' Ceratonia'' has one other species, ''

Ceratonia siliqua The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit, which takes the form of seed pods, and as an orname ...

'' or carob, which is distributed around the Mediterranean. ''C. oreothauma'' is morphologically distinct from ''C. siliqua''. In addition the pollen grains of ''C. oreothauma'' are slightly smaller than those of ''C. siliqua'' and are tricolporate rather than tetracolporate.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15528624 Flora of Oman Flora of Somalia oreothauma Plants described in 1980 Somali montane xeric woodlands Flora of the Hajar Mountains