Afrosalsola

Afrosalsola
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Amaranthaceae
Subfamily:	Salsoloideae
Tribe:	Salsoleae
Genus:	Afrosalsola Akhani

Afrosalsola is a genus of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae. It includes two species of subshrubs or shrubs native to the Canary Islands, Morocco, Mauritania, and Western Sahara. ^[1]

• Afrosalsola deschaseauxiana (Litard. & Maire) Akhani
• Afrosalsola divaricata (Masson ex Link) Akhani

They are shrubby halophytic plants with opposite and alternate branches and leaves. They have a distinct leaf anatomy with a hypodermis and kranz-like cells that perform C₂ photosynthesis, a C₃-C₄ intermediate photosynthetic pathway. The species were formerly included in the genus Salsola , which was found to be polyphyletic. In 2024 Hossein Akhani et al. described the new genus Afrosalsola to include the two species. ^[2]

References

1. "Afrosalsola Akhani". Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 3 December 2025.
2. Akhani H., Abdullahi H. . y Rudov A. (2024). Afrosalsola (Amaranthaceae-Chenopodiaceae), an intermediate C3-C4 lineage from NW Africa and the Canary Islands, and some new combinations in African species of Caroxylon and Soda. Mediterranean Botany, 45(2), e94654. https://doi.org/10.5209/mbot.94654