''Halothamnus bottae'' is a species of the plant genus ''
Halothamnus
''Halothamnus'' is a genus in the subfamily Salsoloideae of the family Amaranthaceae (s.l., now including Chenopodiaceae). The scientific name means saltbush, from the Greek ἅλς (''hals'') "salt" and θαμνος (''thamnos'') "bush". This r ...
'', that belongs to the subfamily
Salsoloideae of the family
Amaranthaceae. It occurs on the
Arabian peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
.
Morphology
''Halothamnus bottae'' is a
shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
30–50 cm high, with blueish-green, thorny branches. The leaves are standing off from the branches, they are triangular, and only 0,7-3 (rarely 8) mm long. The flowers are 2,6-3,6 mm long. The winged fruit is 6–9 mm in diameter. The bottom of the fruit tube has large ovate shallow pits alternating with five prominent radial veins (from the navel to the
tepals).
The subspecies ''H. bottae'' subsp. ''niger'' differs by green twigs soon becoming black, and by dark brown wings of fruit.
Taxonomy
''Halothamnus bottae'' has been first described in 1845 by
Hippolyte François Jaubert
Count Hippolyte François Jaubert (28 October 1798 – 5 December 1874) was a French politician and botanist.
Jaubert was born in Paris, the son of François Hippolyte Jaubert (a commissioner of the French Navy, killed at the Battle of the Nil ...
and
Édouard Spach
Édouard Spach (23 November 1801 – 18 May 1879) was a French botanist.
The son of a merchant in Strasbourg, in 1824 he went to Paris, where he studied botany with René Desfontaines (1750–1831) and Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748–1836). ...
(in ''Illustrationes plantarum orientalium'', volume 2, pl. 136). It is the
type species of the genus ''Halothamnus''.
It consists of two subspecies:
*''Halothamnus bottae'' subsp. ''bottae''
*''Halothamnus bottae'' subsp. ''niger'' Kothe-Heinr.
Distribution
''Halothamnus bottae'' is
endemic on the Arabian peninsula (
Saudi Arabia,
Yemen,
Oman,
United Arab Emirates).
It grows in open shrubland and semidesert on dry stony ground, from 0–2000 m above sea level. The subspecies ''H. bottae'' subsp. ''niger'' occurs only on southern Arabian peninsula, in hot arid lowlands up to 100 m above sea level (similar plants from eastern Africa belong to ''
Halothamnus somalensis
''Halothamnus somalensis'' is a species of the plant genus ''Halothamnus'', that is now included into the family Amaranthaceae, (formerly Chenopodiaceae). It is endemic to the Horn of Africa ( Djibouti, Somalia, and Ethiopia) and is used for ...
'').
Uses
In Oman, the dried parts of ''Halothamnus bottae'' are used as snuff.
Vernacular names
In Saudi Arabia, it is known as "hamḑ al-arnab" and "tiḩyan". In Oman, Jibbali and Dhofari, commons names are "hamdeh" and "kizzot". In Yemen, it is called "asal" and "tanēt".
[E. Blatter: ''Flora Arabica 8,1.'' - Calcutta: Superintendent government printing, 1919.]
References
[Gabriele Kothe-Heinrich]
''Revision der Gattung ''Halothamnus'' (Chenopodiaceae)''. Bibliotheca Botanica Bd. 143
Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1993, , p. 53-57
External links
*
''Halothamnus bottae'' at Tropicos
Photos of ''Halothamnus bottae'' at arkive.org
{{Taxonbar, from=Q149868
bottae