Within dams and water breaker environments in the UAE, this perennial shrublet species was often described as 'dominant' (El Keblawy and Abdelfatah 2014, Mahmoud et al. 2018). It is also known to occur within gravel plains and wadis, in addition to inner-hill valleys, low mountain slopes and dry water-courses (Stuart and Stuart 1998, Jongbloed et al. 2003, Mahmoud et al. 2018). This plant has densely packed leaves, can reach 90 cm in height, has woody stems and is green-silver in colour due to a covering of white hairs (Jongbloed et al. 2003, Karim and Dakheel 2006). It produces purple or red flowers throughout the year, with a peak between January and May, and has a long and flattened dark brown seed pod (Karim and Dakheel 2006). This species is toxic which provides protection from browsing animals (Shahid 2017), which can allow this plant to become dominant in highly grazed areas (Judas 2016). However, the Loew's Blue butterfly, Agrodiaetus loewii, is known to feed on this plant species (Feulner 2005). It may also be parasitised by the plant Cuscuta planiflora (Jongbloed et al. 2003).