1. Haloxylon persicum Bunge ex Boiss. & Buhse in Nouv. Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou. 12: 189. 1860; Ulbrich in Engler & Prantl, l.c. 572, fig. 215 (A-G); Kom., l.c. 311, pl. 10. fig. 9(a-c); R.R.Stewart, l.c. 223; Zohary, Fl. Palaest. 1: 166. fig. 242; Hedge, l.c. 318.
Arthrophytum acutifolium Minkw. in B. Fedschenko, Rast. Turk. 360. 1915. A. arborescens Litv. in Trav. Mus. Bot. Acad. Sc. Petersb. 11: 44. 1913; A. persicum (Bunge ex Boiss. & Buhse) Sawicz in Not. Syst. Herb. Petrop. 5: 45. 1924.
Small tree, up to 5 m high, with a stout rugged stem and light grey bark; branches of the preceding year whitish, densely covered with circular cracks; annotinous shoots pale-green, rather rigid, 1-2 mm in diam., usually erect when young, drooping when old; leaves reduced, scale-like, terminating in a straw-coloured cusp, appressed to stem. Flowers solitary in the axils of obtuse, scale-like bracts borne on very short, twigs; bracteoles round-oval, scarious- margined, obtusely carinate, as long as flower; perianth segments obtuse, membranous, winged in fruit near summit; wings suborbicular, or reniform-semiorbicular, usually somewhat twisted, rounded or subcordate at base, with a span of 9-12 mm. Fruit depressed, 2-2.5 mm in diam., scarcely surpassing the winged perianth.
Fl. Per.: October-November.
Type: (Persia S of Kavir) “Grosse Salzwuste (Kavir) bei /Dschendak (Jandaq) and Enarak (Anarak), gesellig wachsend in Flugsande, April 1849”, F. Buhse (LE).
Distribution: Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Sinai, S. Iraq, Saudi Arabia; Iran to Oman and UAE, Turcomania, Afghanistan, Pakistan (Baluchistan) to China.
