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  • COMMON NAME: Fire Bush
  • ARABIC: الأرطا
  • BOTANICAL NAME: Calligonum comosum L'Her
  • SYNONYMS: C. polygomoides L. subsp. comosum ( L'H'er.)Sosk
  • FAMILY: POLYGONACEAE
  • KIND: Native
  • EMIRATE: Abu-Dhabi , Sharjah
  • CATEGORIES: Medicinal (M) Fodder (F) Landscape (L) Fruits (F) Cosmectis (C) Other Uses (O)
  • GROWTH FORMS: Shrubs
  • HABITATS: Wadi Sandy
  • TYPES: Perennial
  • REMARKS: Calligonum sp. are the food plants for the caterpillar of the striped hawk moth Hyles livornica and the Lackey moth Chilene laristana.
Flora of the United Arab Emirates V1 & 2, Fawzi M.Karim, Nael M.Fawzi; reviewed by Fatima Al-Ansary. Al-Ain: United Arab Emirates University, 2007. Karim FM and Dakheel AG. Salt-tolerant plants of the United Arab Emirates. 2006. International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, Dubai, UAE. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:693307-1 Encyclopedia of medicinal plants of UAE 1&2 from Zayed complex for herbal Research & traditional medicine, AD. V.V. Byalt, V.M. Korshunov, M.V. Korshunov. Cadaster of the Flora of Fujairah Emirate (United Arab Emirates). Al Fujairah 2021. M.V.D jongbloed, G.R. Fuelner, B. Boer, A.R. Western. the comprehensive guide to the wild flowers of the United Arab Emirates. Environmental research and wildlife Development agency, Abu Dhabi, 2003.
Highly salt tolerant up to half seawater salinity, grazed by animal, used as firewood (gives smokeless fires) and as an ornamental plant. One of the old well-known plants in folk medicinal use. The fruits are edible and freshen the mouth with their tart taste. The plant is astringent and tonic. The fresh branches are eaten with cooked food, and it is used to treat stomach and eye diseases. Women also use it to perfume and color hair, and it is also used in tanning and dyeing clothes. Dried leaves and stems chewed to treat toothache; young shoots collected as salad, green or powdered to add to milk as tonic for flavorings.

Woody, deciduous shrub, 50-150cm high, much branched, glabrous, with whitish older branches, swollen and knotty at the nodes and younger slender
green branchlets. Leaves if present minute, filiform, adnate to the ochrea. Pedicels equal or longer than perianth. Perianth lobes small, white-pinkish, oblong, obtuse. Achenes red or greenish, 1-1.5cm long, 0.5-1cm broad, ovate, covered with rough branching bristles arising from 4-pairs, jointed short
longitudinal wings. 

Flowering from February to April.
Tropical and subtropical regions; widespread in UAE. Frequent to common in deeper sand, dunes, plains and valleys; cultivated around desert plantation as windbreaks; tolerates medium saline conditions.
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