This article is about a plant. For a town in Lebanon, see Hermel. African-rue” is often used in Russian woman given formalin American English.

Harmel” is used in India, Algeria, and Morocco. It is known as “spilani” in Pashto. In Urdu it is known as “harmal”, “ispand” or “isband”. In Turkish it is known as uzerlik or sedefotu. In Spain it is known as hármala, alharma or gamarza, amongst dozens of other local names. Habitus – It is a perennial, herbaceous, suffrutescent, hemicryptophyte plant, which dies off in the winter, but regrows from the rootstock the following spring.

Stems – Numerous erect to spreading stems grow from the crown of the root-stock in the spring, these branch in a corymbose fashion. Roots – The roots of the plant can reach a depth of up to 6. 1 m, if the soil where it is growing is very dry. The roots can grow to 2cm thick. Leaves – The leaves are alternate, sessile, and have bristly, 1. 5mm long stipules at the base. Flowers – It blooms with solitary flowers opposite to the leaves on the apical parts of branches.

The flowers produce only a tiny amount of nectar. The nectar is rich in hexose sugars. The exine has a sexine which is thicker than the nexine. The immature fruit of Peganum harmala have persistent styles. Fruit – The plant fruits between July and November in China. Seeds – The seeds are coloured dark brown to blackish-brown, slightly curved, triangular, about 2mm long with a muriculate surface.

In Africa it is known from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. It likely doesn’t occur in Mauritania. In Turkey it is found in both Thrace and across most of Anatolia, but is absent from the northern Black Sea coast. It is abundant in some regions of south and central Anatolia. The distribution in China is in dispute. It has been added to the lists of the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species for the countries of South Africa, Mexico, France and Ukraine, although it is not reported as having a negative impact in any of these countries. In France it is considered a former accidental introduction once uncommonly found on the Côte d’Azur along the Mediterranean coast.

It has very rarely been found elsewhere in France in the past. It was first planted in the United States in 1928 in New Mexico by a farmer wanting to manufacture a dye called “Turkish red” from its seeds. Although the distribution in New Mexico and Texas would suggest it has spread to parts of northern Mexico, the species has not been included in the 2004 list of introduced plants of Mexico. It grows in dry areas in the USA. It can be considered a halophyte.

In Kashmir and Ladakh it is known from elevations of 300-2400m, in China 400-3600m, in Turkey 0-1500m, and in Spain 0-1200m. In China it grows in slightly saline sands near oases and dry grasslands in desert areas. In Spain it can be found in abandoned fields, rubbish tips, stony slopes, along the verges of roads, ploughed and worked earth, as well as in disturbed, saline scrubland. In Morocco it is said to grow in steppes, arid coasts, dry uncultivated fields and amongst ruins. The flowers are pollinated by insects.