Fujairah Flora: Glossonema Varians

Perennial semi-prostrate herb with stiff greenish white stem and branches, spreading, to 35 cm, often with overall woolly appearance.

Glossonema varians is a medicinally important, rare, endemic and edible plant species.

Leaves opposite grey-green, rounded with wavy margins, hairy beneath, on short stalks. Flowers small, pale yellow, in leaf axils Feb-May. Easily recognized by swollen ovate fruits, white, smooth with curved tip and curved with soft curved prickles; fruits bear central lengthwise groove. Seeds small, rounded with hairy tuffs.