Halothamnus iranicus

Halothamnus iranicus is a sub-shrub up to 45 cm high and 100 cm in diameter, with blueish-green branches. It smells unpleasantly like rancid butter. The leaves are linear to triangular-ovate, and up to 11 mm long. The flowers are at 1–6 mm distance from each other, 3.2-4.2 mm long, longer than their bract and bracteoles, with oblong-ovate tepals. The stigmas are tapering towards the apex. The winged fruit is 7–11 mm in diameter, their wings inserting at 1/3 of the fruit height. The fruit tube is nearly cylindrical, with narrow, sharp-edged peripheral rim and small, ovate pits.

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  fruit (lateral view)
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  fruit (bottom)

Halothamnus iranicus has been first described in 1981 by Victor Petrovič Botschantzev (in: Bot. Mater. Gerb. Bot. Inst. Komarova Akad. Nauk SSSR 18, p. 153). Within the genus, it belongs to the section Halothamnus.

Halothamnus iranicus is endemic in southern Iran and in southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan). It grows in habitats with a mild winter climate, on rocky, stony, partly salty soils, from 0–930 m above sea level.

• Gabriele Kothe-Heinrich: Revision der Gattung Halothamnus (Chenopodiaceae). Bibliotheca Botanica Bd. 143, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 978-3-510-48014-2, p. 57-61
• Gabriele Kothe-Heinrich: Halothamnus. - In: Karl Heinz Rechinger et al. (Edit.): Flora Iranica Bd. 172, Chenopodiaceae - Akad. Druck, Graz 1997, ISBN 3-201-00728-5, p. 263-265, and fig.7-8, tab.148

• Media related to Halothamnus iranicus at Wikimedia Commons
• Data related to Halothamnus iranicus at Wikispecies
• Halothamnus iranicus at Tropicos