Halothamnus hierochunticus
Halothamnus hierochunticus is a species of the plant genus Halothamnus, that belongs to the subfamily Salsoloideae within the family Amaranthaceae,. It occurs in Southwest Asia and is partly considered as a weed.
Morphology
Halothamnus hierochunticus is an annual plant 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 mm long. The flowers are at 6–13 mm distance from each other, 2,8-3,3 mm long, somewhat shorter than their bract 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. 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.
Taxonomy
The species has been first described in 1912 as Salsola hierochuntica by Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller. In 1981, Victor Petrovič Botschantzev included it into the genus Halothamnus. Within the genus, it belongs to the section Halothamnus.;Synonyms
- Salsola hierochuntica Bornm.
- Salsola autrani Post. var. hierochuntica Eig.
- Aellenia hierochuntica Aellen
- Aellenia autrani Zoh.
- Aellenia autrani Zoh. var. hierochuntica Zoh., nom. inval
- Hebrew: אֵלֶנְיָה נָאָה