Ochradenus baccatus
Ochradenus baccatus Delile, Fl. Egypte. 92.t.31. 1813.
Synonyms:
Ochradenus rostratus Ehrenb. ex Müll.Arg., in Neue Denkschr. Allg. Schweiz. Ges. Gesammten Naturwiss. 16: 95 (1858).
NE
Dioecious shrub with slender branches, sometimes scandent, l-3m tall, glabrous throughout. Leaves linear, l-4cm. Racemes with distant or touching flowers, 8-20cm long; pedicels l-2mm. Flowers yellow. Sepals oblong-ovate, 1-1.5mm. Petals absent or rarely present. Disc ± reflexed. Stamens 10-18. Fruit baccate, globose, 3-6mm across, subsessile to sessile, white when mature (often red when dried). Seeds 1.21.8 x 1-1.5mm, minutely tuberculate, brown to black. Plants from Socotra are somewhat intermediate with O. arabicus; they have thesmooth, shiny seeds of O. arabicus but the fleshy fruits of O. baccatus. Further investigation will perhaps show them to merit formal taxonomic recognition, perhaps as a subspecies ofO. baccatus.
Saudi Arabia, Yemen (N & S), Socotra, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait. In deserts from Libya east to Pakistan, Iran and Jordan south to Somalia.
The Farasan Islands(Farasan Al-Kabir).
Rocky and sandy deserts, semi-deserts and mountains.
Flowering period: January-May.