A gray-tomentose, annual or perennial, low shrub with branched, spreading stems, bearing slender straight spines. Leaves are ovate, sinuately lobed and with erect spines along midrib and nerves. Flower has a prickly petiole and blue-violet corolla, tomentose outside. Fruit is a spherical yellow berry, with a prickly accrescent calyx and shiny black seeds.
Arabian Desert, South Red Sea Coast, North Red Sea Coast, Gebel Elba.
Egypt, tropical East Africa, southern Arabia, both sides of the Red Sea.
Tropical semi-deserts and over-grazed places.
Annual or perennial.
Height: 0.2-1 m.
