Salsola aphylla

The saltbush, lye ganna or gannabos (Afrikaans), common names of Salsola aphylla, is a large, branched shrub of about 1,8 m; or sometimes just a small shrublet.

It does occasionally even become a small tree of 4 m in height. S. aphylla has a SA Tree List Number: 103.3.

Saltbush is common in the Northern Cape, the Western Cape, the west of the Free state and of the Eastern Cape. It is well-known in the Karoo.

The plants grow in dry watercourses of the hot and arid inland parts of South Africa and southern Namibia, places where underground water is important to those living on top. It also grows on floodplains in loamy and saline soils where drought lasts for long periods. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century.

Long ago, when settler farmers had to make their own soap or go without, boiled leaves or the ashes of burned stems of this plant were used as lye for home-made soap, explaining one of the common names of the plant (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; http://redlist.sanbi.org).