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

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

and

Somaliland Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صوماليلاند, link=no ''Jumhūrīyat Ṣūmālīlānd'' is a ''de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still conside ...

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 (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s.Batlle, I. and J. Tous. 1997. Carob tree. Ceratonia siliqua L. Promoting the conservation and use of underutilized and neglected crops. 17. Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben/International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy.

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 ( ar, جِبَال ٱلْحَجَر, Jibāl al-Ḥajar, ''The Rocky Mountains'' or ''The Stone Mountains'') in northeastern Oman and also the eastern United Arab Emirates are the highest mountain range in the eastern Arabian ...

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.

Systematics

Ceratonia ''Ceratonia'' is small genus of flowering plant, flowering trees in the pea family, Fabaceae, Endemism, endemic to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Its best known member, the Ceratonia siliqua, carob tree, is cultivated for its pod ...

'' 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 pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and lands ...

'' 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