Appearance
"A. hispanicum" is a sprawling annual herbaceous plant 5 to 20 cm high with opposite, papillose, succulent leaves. These are lanceolate with entire margins. The solitary flowers have five white tepals which are yellowish green on the outside, 5 to 15 stamens and an ovary with 5 locules giving a pentagonal fruit capsule containing 2 brown seeds in each locule.The fruits have an unusual mechanism for dispersing the seeds. When it rains, the locules gradually fill with water. Near the centre of the capsule, the covering membranes are arranged in such a way that they form a nozzle, and when further rain drops fall on the capsule, a jet of water and seeds is propelled through this nozzle; this allows the plant to scatter its seeds much more widely than is the case in related species that lack this mechanism.
Naming
It was first described as "Aizoon hispanicum" by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and was in 2002 placed in the genus "Aizoanthemum" by the German botanist Heidrun Hartmann.Distribution
"A. hispanicum" is native to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and the Arabian Peninsula where it grows in compacted sandy soil in desert plains, saline areas and semi-arid regions. It also grows in the Mediterranean region and the Canary Islands.References:
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