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  • COMMON NAME: Meru
  • ARABIC: مرو، سرح
  • BOTANICAL NAME: Maerua crassifolia Forssk.
  • SYNONYMS: M. uniflora
  • FAMILY: CAPPARACEAE
  • KIND: Native
  • EMIRATE: Abu-Dhabi , Ras-Al-Khaimah
  • CATEGORIES: Medicinal (M) Fruits (F) Cosmectis (C)
  • GROWTH FORMS: Shrubs Tree
  • HABITATS: Wadi Sandy
  • TYPES: Perennial
  • REMARKS: Studies by the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) have identified this living tree, estimated to be more than 100 years old. The Agency’s fieldworkers found the tree growing in a rocky formation in the Malakat area, east of Al Ain and close to the UAE’s border with the Sultanate of Oman. Access to the area is difficult, which has probably helped it to survive. Food plant for caterpillars of the caper white butterfly Anaphaeis aurota.
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. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:147674-1#synonyms https://www.gulftoday.ae/news/2020/07/07/100-year-old-evergreen-tree-al-sarh-found-in-abu-dhabi#:~:text=The%20tree%2C%20known%20locally%20as%20Al-Sarh%2C%20is%20a,known%20in%20the%20UAE%20from%20Ras%20Al%20Khaimah. 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.
The leaves and fruits are edible. Inhabitants of Malakat estimated the tree to be more than 100-years-old and remembered using its delicate branches as an instrument to put on eyeliner. Filtered solution of leaves boiled in water drunk to treat constipation and abdominal colic. Paste of powdered leaves mixed with leaves of Lawsonia inermis and water as poultice on bone fracure to ease the pain.
Puberulen shrub or small tree, 2-6 meter high, with ascending or divaricate branches. Bark grey. Leaves about 1 cm long, obovate, sometimes spathulate, entire, retuse with short petioles. Flowers green, few, together on long hairy peduncles. Calyx tube 4-6 mm long, 2-4 mm broad, oblong -ovate pubescent petals absent. Stamens many; filaments 10-15 ,, long, white, yellow-tipped. Gynophore 10-15 mm long thickened in fruit. Fruit a berry, about 1 cm in diameter. Flowering from February to April.
Wadis and oases in dry deserts.
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