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Gymnosporia dhofarensis
Gymnosporia dhofarensis is a species of plant in the family Celastraceae and is found in Oman and Yemen. It is an intricately branched spiny shrub or small tree with its leaves arranged alternately or clustered on short shoots. The flowers have white or cream petals and the fruit are purple or red. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Cut branches were traditionally popular as building material for pens and enclosures, for perimeter fences around the settlement compounds, for building partitions or to make a dense barrier across a cave mouth, or the 'door' due to the vicious thorns that were considered to cause more pain and difficulty of extraction.
Gymnosporia dhofarensis provides adequate firewood, however unpleasant thorns make it difficult to handle. If well known hardwood trees were absent, the wood of a well developed maytenus specimen would be used to make such vital weapons as a double-ended throwing stick and a knobbed club.
This species is endemic to the Dhofar region of Oman and Yemen. These shrubs grow widely throughout Dhofar in drier areas as well as in monsoon areas.
Gymnosporia addat · Gymnosporia arbutifolia · Willow Spike Thorn · Camassiwood · Gymnosporia cassinoides · Gymnosporia harenensis · Angle Stem Spikethorn · Forest Maytenus · Gymnosporia pertinax · Maytenus senegalensis · Gymnosporia stylosa · Bell Spike Thorn
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gymnosporia dhofarensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
