Xewk tal-Baħar
A salt-tolerant shrub of rocky slopes found only in the Maltese Islands, known in Maltese as xebb or siġra tal-irmied.
The Maltese salt tree is a small shrub or tree whose tiny flowers open from September to November. The name Salsola comes from the Latin for salty, because plants of this genus tolerate salt. It grows on rocky slopes and hill-top escarpments, sometimes inland on Globigerina limestone.
For many years it was confused with another species. Around 1970 the botanists Lanfranco and Brullo showed that the plant recorded in Malta did not match that species, and it was named as a species of its own in 1976. It was long known in Maltese literature as Darniella melitensis.
It is a strictly protected endemic and is listed in the Red Data Book of the Maltese Islands as threatened.
How to help
Admire it where it grows and leave it undisturbed: it is protected by law. Report damage to plants or their habitat to ERA.
Text: Wikipedia; Online Flora of the Maltese Islands, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Edited by the Editorial Team.
Photo: Matthew Caruana Galizia, CC BY 4.0.
