I have learned much about the camels, their preferences, and the desert’s flora. Zygophyllum has a very bitter taste and saltish plant because of its’ high salts contents and some level of alkaloids (which depress the appetite of the animals, though camels have higher tolerable levels for alkaloids). Such biochemical molecules in the bushes like Zygophyllum sp. depress the appetite as well as poisonous for some types of livestock. Producing such molecules (alkaloids, saponin, etc) is the strategy of the plants to save their race from the grazing animals, therefore Zygophylum qatarense is browsed by camels to a certain level but not minimized to the ground level. Continue reading Tetraena qatarensis synonym Zygophyllum qatarense, a highly resilient perennial shrub of the desert