Forsskaolea tenacissima

Forsskaolea tenacissima is a member of the non-stinging nettles genus Forsskaolea and is in the same family as the stinging kind, Urticaceae. Described as 'looking like a tough character that does not want or need a caress', F. tenacissima makes its home where not many plant species survive, in stony soils, road edges, in the gravel wadiand 'in the rock crevices and water-receiving depressions' above the stone pavements of the Hamadas. Forsskaolea tenacissima was named in mourning of a student of Carl Linnaeus, a Swede named Peter Forsskål, who died while gathering botanical and zoological specimens from the Arabia Felix. Linnaeus named this plant Forsskaolea tenacissima because the plant was as stubborn and persistent as the student had been. The almost upright 65 centimetres (26 in) fleshy, stiff-haired, woody annual F. tenacissima appears after the rains in rocky and difficult to grow in places like the Sahel of Mauritania, and Northeast Africa (the Horn of Africa), and now recorded in Niger. It is a chamaephyte that is much relished by livestock. F. tenacissima has been observed living low in wadis with these plant species: It has also been found growing in rock crevices and water-receiving depressions above the stone pavements of the Hamadas along with: Common in arid and semi-arid waste lands in sandy clay gravelly soils from sea level to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) like Mediterranean woodlands and shrublands, semi-steppe shrublands, shrub-steppes, deserts and extreme deserts. The inner bark is used by natives in Sahara for manufacturing rope.