Ochradenus baccatus Del.

A desert shrub with pretty greenish-yellow flowers. J. Mueller (Monog. Resed. 95.1857) refers the straggling form to var. scandens Hochst et Steud ex Muell. (Sind, Stocks 409, K). The plant is browsed by cattle. The fruit is sweet and edible.

A straggling shrub, sometimes polygamous. Branches slender, greenish yellow when mature. Leaves 1-4 cm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, linear, acute. Flowers yellowish green, in dense terminal and rigid racemes 5-15 cm long. Bract c. 2.5 mm long, oblong. Pedicel 1 mm long, slightly longer in fruit. Bisexual flowers: Sepals 5(-6), ovate, 1 mm long. Petals absent or 2-3, less than 1 mm long, subulate; appendage more or less suborbiculate. Disc fleshy, surrounding the filaments and ovary. Stamens 10-12; filaments 1-2 mm long, fused at the base, deciduous. Female flowers: Petals absent or reduced. Ovary glabrous. Staminodes present. Berry 3-5 mm broad, white. Seeds c. 1.5 mm long, reniform, brown, papillose.

Distribution: Libya to Egypt, Ethiopia, Somaliland, Socotra, Middle East to S. Iran and Pakistan.

Fl.Per.: January-May.