TABERNAEMONTANA

The Ziziphus lotus is a spiny fruit shrub, and a member of the family Rhamnaceae. It grows in tufts that are a few meters in diameter and up to two meters high, and is commonly called “Sedra” in MENA  The fruits of Z. lotus are drupes with welded stones, having the shape and size of a beautiful olive, first green, then young, and finally dark red at maturity from September to October  The fructification begins in the fourth year in full yield around the age of fifteen; it is very productive when it receives copious watering during the summer , The plant has oblong, whole-margined, short-petiolate, glabrous, alternating, deciduous leaves, and each leaf bears at its base two stipules transformed into an uneven and vulnerable thorn.