Forsskaolea tenacissima

Forsskaolea tenacissima is a member of the non-stinging nettles genus Forsskaolea and is in the same family as the stinging kind, Urticaceae. Described as "looking like a tough character that does not want or need a caress", F. tenacissima makes its home where not many plant species survive, in stony soils, road edges, in the gravel wadi
and "in the rock crevices and water-receiving depressions" above the stone pavements of the Hamadas.
Forsskaolea tenacissima was named in mourning of a student of Carl Linnaeus, a Swede named Peter Forsskål, who died while gathering botanical and zoological specimens from the Arabia Felix. Linnaeus named this plant Forsskaolea tenacissima because the plant was as stubborn and persistent as the student had been.
Description
The almost upright fleshy, stiff-haired, woody annual F. tenacissima appears after the rains in rocky and difficult to grow in places like the Sahel of Mauritania, and Northeast Africa (the Horn of Africa), and now recorded in Niger. It is a chamaephyte that is much relished by livestock.
Leaves and stems to leaf stalks. Broad-side of leaves are squared-oval to round to long and to wide. Upper leaf surfaces have straight and hooked hairs and the lower leaf is densely white-wooly with hair. Small leafy outgrowth at the base of the leaf are rounded, to long, to wide, persistent and dry—not green.
Flowers Five involucral bracts narrow and tapering to a point, to long and densely wooly. Four to eight male flowers and two to six female flowers in the center of the flower head which is attached right to the stem. Three unequal sepals; long stamen with a pointy anther and a conical long ovary which is surrounded with dense wool. The stigma is as long as the ovary.
Seeds Achenes are elliptical, reddish-brown and long.
Communities In Spain, F. tenacissima has been observed in a phytosociological situation (made "on the rocks" or in the gravel wadis of Tabernas Desert) with Senecio flavus.
F. tenacissima has been observed living low in wadis with these plant species:
Acacia tortilis
Aerva javanica
Lotononis platycarpa
Farsetia longisiliqua
It has also been found growing in rock crevices and water-receiving depressions above the stone pavements of the Hamadas along with:
Anastatica hierochuntica
Fagonia latifolia
Farsetia aegyptia
Nauplius graveolens
Reseda villosa
Salvia aegyptiaca
Enneapogon desvauxii
Enneapogon scaber
Distribution
Common in arid and semi-arid waste lands in sandy clay gravelly soils from sea level to like Mediterranean woodlands and shrublands, semi-steppe shrublands, shrub-steppes, deserts and extreme deserts.
Native
Palearctic:
Northern Africa: Algeria, Egypt
Southwestern Europe: Spain
Southeastern Europe: Malta
Western Asia: Israel, Jordan, Libya, Palestine, Sinai, Tunisia
Current
Palearctic:
Northern Africa: Algeria, Egypt
Southwestern Europe: Spain
Southeastern Europe: Malta
Western Asia: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan, Palestine, Sinai, Tunisia
Asia Temperate: India
Afrotropic:
Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates
Northeast Tropical Africa: Eritrea
West Tropical Africa: Mauritania
Uses
The inner bark is used by natives in Sahara for manufacturing rope.
Synonyms
Forsskaolea tenacissima L. var. cossoniana (Webb) Batt.
Forsskaolea tenacissima L. var. erythraea A.Terracc.
Forsskaolea tenacissima L. var. cossoniana (Webb) Batt.
References
External links
tenacissima