''Halothamnus hierochunticus'' 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 within the family Amaranthaceae, (formerly Chenopodiaceae). It occurs in Southwest Asia and is partly considered as a weed.

Morphology

''Halothamnus hierochunticus'' is an

annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical ...

40–50 cm high, with blueish-green branches. It smells unpleasantly like rancid butter. The half-terete leaves are linear to linear-triangular, and up to 30 (rarely 50) mm long. The flowers are at 6–13 mm distance from each other, 2,8-3,3 mm long, somewhat shorter than their

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

and bracteoles, with triangular tepals. The stigmas have a truncate apex. The winged fruit is 10–16 mm in diameter, their wings inserting in the middle of the fruit height. The fruit tube has concave sides with sharply prominent ridges (veins). At its bottom, a narrow prominent peripheral rim surrounds the large roundish pits. In the lower parts of the plants, the fruits are heavier with shorter wings, in the upper part fruits are lighter with larger wings (

heterocarpy Amphicarpy is a reproductive strategy that occurs with 13 plant families, expressed mostly in species with an annual life cycle. It is characterized by production of two types of fruit, for different ecological roles. It is sometimes restricted to t ...

). file:Halothamnus hierochunticus fruit 1.JPG, fruit, lateral view file: Halothamnus hierochunticus fruit 2.JPG, fruits, bottom, from lower part of plant (left) and from upper part (right)

Taxonomy

The species has been first described in 1912 as ''Salsola hierochuntica'' by

Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller (February 6, 1862 – December 19, 1948) was a German botanist born in Hildburghausen, Thuringia. Biography He studied horticulture in Potsdam, and in 1886 traveled to the Balkans and Greece on his first bo ...

(in: Zur Flora Palästinas. - in: Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 29,2, 1912, p. 13). In 1981,

Victor Petrovič Botschantzev Victor Petrovitch Botchantsev (russian: Виктор Петрович Бочанцев) (20 October 1910 - 30 August 1990) was a Russian botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of ...

included it into the genus ''

'' (in: Bot. Mater. Gerb. Bot. Inst. Komarova Akad. Nauk SSSR 18: 156). Within the genus, it belongs to the section ''Halothamnus''. ;Synonyms *''Salsola hierochuntica'' Bornm. *''Salsola autrani'' Post. var. ''hierochuntica'' (Bornm.) Eig. *''Aellenia hierochuntica'' (Bornm.) Aellen *''Aellenia autrani'' (Post) Zoh. (but not synonym: ''Salsola autrani'' Post) *''Aellenia autrani'' (Post) Zoh. var. ''hierochuntica'' (Bornm.) Zoh., nom. inval ;Vernacular names *Hebrew: אֵלֶנְיָה נָאָה

Distribution

The distribution area of ''Halothamnus hierochunticus'' extends from Turkey (SE- Anatolia), Lebanon,

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, Israel and

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, Jordan, Iraq to western Iran. At two disjunct sites in Iran ( Gilan and Fars) the species could have been imported as a weed. It grows in fields, where partly it seems to be a troublesome weed,D. Shimshi: ''Population dynamics of ''Aellenia hierochuntica'' (Bornm.) Aellen.'' - Israel J. Bot. 20, 1971, p.44-47. and on ruderal places like roadsides or ruins, on loess or sand, often on saline soils, up to 1500 m above sea level.

References

Gabriele Kothe-Heinrich
''Revision der Gattung ''Halothamnus'' (Chenopodiaceae).'' Bibliotheca Botanica Bd. 143
Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1993, , p. 61-65 Gabriele Kothe-Heinrich: ''Halothamnus''. - In: Karl Heinz Rechinger et al. (Edit.): ''Flora Iranica Bd. 172, Chenopodiaceae'' - Akad. Druck, Graz 1997, , p. 261-262 and fig.7-8, tab. 146.

External links

Photos of ''Halothamnus hierochunticus''
in Flora of Israel online {{Taxonbar, from=Q150213 hierochunticus Taxa named by Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller Taxa named by Victor Botchantsev