After good rains, many wadis are bordered with lush stands of oleander, he dark leaves offsetting the bunches of bright pink flowers. All parts of this plant are poisonous.
Another member of the oleander family, rhazya stricta, grows on gravel plains and is small, 30cm high shrub with dark green pointed leaves. It has tiny sweet-smelling white flowers, and long seedpods.
The plant used to be considered such a powerful medicine for skin ailments that dried wild rhazya was exported from Oman to the UAE during the early 1900s.
Arabic name: haban
Height: to 3m
