Due to my general inability to
identify plants I sent the below photos to Irene Linning who is a plant expert
who used to live in Dhahran, and thankfully is kind enough to help me with
plant identifications. She responded syaing “This does look like Zygophyllum
simplex, although one of the distinguishing features is that it has 10 stamens
and I count more than ten in some of the flowers. There are faint possibilities
that it is a different species, very faint”. The generic name is derived from
Greek Zygon meaning ‘yoke’ and phyllon meaning ‘leaf’. This refers to the
leaves that have two leaflets. They occur in arid and semi arid areas of the
Mediterranean, Arica, Central Asia and Australia.
