Flora

Bassia eriophora (Schrad.) Asch., it is an annual Succulence. Stems up tp 5-25cm, erect to ascending, branching from base; stem and branches sparsely covered with soft hairs. Leaves, alternate, entire, linear, margin smooth, small, flat, sub sessile or very shortly petioled, linear-oblong to lanceolate-ovate or elliptic, ± fleshy, entire, 5-20 x 2-4 mm, abruptly narrowed towards base, acute to obtuse, pubescent especially beneath and on the margins, Inflorescence: Hermaphrodite, solitary or in cymes, arranged in a panicle. Flowering glomerules like cotton balls, hidden in thick white fleece, densely spicate; perianth segments 5, stamens 5, stigmas 2 or 3. Fruits pods: Fruiting perianth adherent to the fruit, rounded-oval, 1 mm long, like cotton-balls, with or without short protuberances at the back; seed c. 1 mm across, discoid, brown

Th

SA+IT. The native range of this species is E. Medit. to Mongolia and Arabian Peninsula.

Sirte Plains:

Sirte 2015