Halothamnus subaphyllus is a species of the plant genus Halothamnus

Halothamnus

Halothamnus is a genus of the former Chenopodiaceae that is now included into the family Amaranthaceae. The scientific name means saltbush, from the Greek ἅλς "salt" and θαμνος "bush"...

, that is now included into the family Amaranthaceae

Amaranthaceae

The flowering plant family Amaranthaceae, the Amaranth family, contains about 176 genera and 2,400 species.- Description :Most of these species are herbs or subshrubs; very few are trees or climbers. Some species are succulent....

, (formerly Chenopodiaceae

Chenopodiaceae

Chenopodiaceae were a family of flowering plants, also called the Goosefoot Family. They are now included within family Amaranthaceae. The vast majority of Chenopods are weeds, and many are salt and drought tolerant. A few food crops also belong to the family: spinach, beets, chard, quinoa, and...

).

Morphology

Halothamnus subaphyllus is a sub-shrub 0,5-1,2 m high (on sand also shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 up to 2,5 m high), with blueish-green or green branches. The lower leaves are half-terete, fleshy, linear and up to 35 mm long, the upper ones are scale-like, only 1–4 mm long, basally and laterally and mostly at the tip with narrow membranaceous margin. The bract

Bract

In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...

s resemble the leaves, at the upper flowers they are shorter than bracteoles and flowers, with membranaceous margin all around. The bracteoles are scale-like, transverse-oval, with membranaceous margin all around, adjacent to the flowers, together with the bract forming a low cup. The flowers are 3,2-5,0 mm long with oval tepals, the stigmas are truncate at their tip. The winged fruit is 11–17 mm in diameter, their wings inserted in or a bit below the middle. The tube of the fruit is dish-like, narrowed to its base, with prominent ridges, at its bottom with flat, oval to round pits.
The species is classified into three subspecies:

• ssp. subaphyllus
• ssp. psammophilus, a shrub up to 2,5 m with shorter and thinner flower-bearing branches and longer upper leaves.
• ssp. charifii, with conspicuous tufts of long curly hairs in the axils of the leaves.

Distribution

The distribution area of Halothamnus subaphyllus includes Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

, Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...

, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

, Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan (Baluchistan). It grows in steppe

Steppe

In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...

, semideserts and desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

s on stony, clayey or sandy ground, often on salty or gypsum soils, up to 2400 m above sea-level.

Cultivation and uses

Halothamnus subaphyllus is an important fodder plant of the grazed deserts of Middle Asia. It is eaten by sheep, goats and camels and by cattle, therefore it is cultivated in artificial recultivated pasture. Most productive is the subspecies psammophilus.
The subspecies psammophilus is also planted for the stabilisation of mobile sand dunes.
As traditional medicine, Halothamnus subaphyllus is used for women's diseases, for strengthening of the hair, and against scabies of sheep. and for anthrax

Anthrax

Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...

 and healing of wounds. The plants are rich in medically used alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

s (Subaphyllin, Salsolin). Furthermore it is used as dying agent for tissues. The ash of the plants was formerly used to extract soda and potash

Potash

Potash is the common name for various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. In some rare cases, potash can be formed with traces of organic materials such as plant remains, and this was the major historical source for it before the industrial era...

 for making soap.
The leaves accumulate boron

Boron

Boron is the chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a metalloid. Because boron is not produced by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element in both the solar system and the Earth's crust. However, boron is concentrated on Earth by the...

.

Taxonomy

Halothamnus subaphyllus (C.Meyer) Botsch. s.l., Bot. Mater. Gerb. Bot. Inst. Komarova Akad. Nauk SSSR 18: 171, 1981.

Synonyms for ssp. subaphyllus

• Salsola subaphylla C.Meyer
• Caroxylon subaphyllum (C.Meyer) Moq
• Salsola subaphylla C.Meyer var. typica Drobov, nom. inval
• Salsola subaphylla C.Meyer ssp. typica (Drobov) Iljin, nom. inval
• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Aellen
• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Aellen ssp. eu-subaphylla Aellen, nom.inval
• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Botsch. ex Aellen, quoad nom.
• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Aellen ssp. subaphylla
• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Aellen ssp. sabetii Aellen
• Salsola subaphylla C.Meyer var. arenaria Drobov
• Salsola arenaria (Drobov) Iljin, nom. nud
• Salsola subaphylla C.Meyer ssp. arenaria (Drobov) Iljin
• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Aellen ssp. turcomanica Aellen
• Aellenia turcomanica (Aellen) Čer.

Synonyms for ssp. charifii (Aellen) Kothe-Heinr., 1993

• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Aellen ssp. charifii Aellen
• Aellenia subaphylla (C.Meyer) Aellen ssp. gracilenta Aellen
• Halothamnus subaphylloides Botsch

Synonym for ssp. psammophilus (Botsch.) Kothe-Heinr., 1993

• Halothamnus psammophilus Botsch.

Vernacular names

• Usbekistan: ČOGON, ČOGAN, ČUGON
• Kasachstan: ŠONGAJNA
• Russian: солянка малолистная

External links

• http://ww2.bgbm.org/herbarium/view_large.cfm?SpecimenPK=84531&idThumb=281648&SpecimenSequenz=1&loan=0 Digital herbarium specimens from Herbarium Berlin
• Schweizerbart Bibliotheca Botanica Bd. 143 Webpage