Salsola imbricata

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Photographs by: Dr. Maulik Gadani

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  • Botanical Name : Salsola imbricata Forssk.
  • Synonyms : Salsola baryosma (Schult.) Dandy, Chenopodium baryosmum Schult.
  • Plant Family : Amaranthaceae
  • Plant Form : Herb
  • Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park

About Salsola imbricata Plant :

  • Habit : A large, much branched, pale-hoary, stout herb with stems stout, branches filiform, densely crowded, slender. The branches often bear globose villous falls, beset with linear leaves and caused by insect-puncture.
  • Leaves : Minute, fleshy, subglobose.
  • Inflorescence and Flowers :
    • Flowers minute, in very short cylindric spikes, formed by floral leaves which are long and imbricate, bracteoles 1 mm long, broadly ovate or obovate, fleshy.
    • Fruiting perianth as long as the bracteoles, silvery-white, oblong, rounded or obtuse at apex, wings symmetrical, rounded, membranous, horizontal, margins often overlapping.
    • Stigmas 2, recurved.
  • Flowering and Fruiting Time : November - December
  • Significance :
    • The plant is used as camel fodder, and manna is obtained from its leaves.
    • It has been used to obtain Sajji, a crude form of carbonate of soda.
    • The plant is used as a vermifuge. Its ashes are applied to itch.