Pteropyrum scoparium (Arabic: sidaaf) is in peak viewing condition during February, following the rains of December and the 20-minute shower we enjoyed in January – in the Capital Area at least. This unusually early December rain has done a lot seemingly to leng-then the present winter plant-growing season, with a large number of species here and there in the wild beginning to flower, and with another couple of months of cool weather still to go before the May sizzle takes its toll.
The Omani name sidaaf is far easier to pronounce than the Latin/scientific name Pteropyrum scoparium, which translates roughly to ‘broom-like winged wheat’: a ‘broom’ in the sense of a plant with dense upright parallel stems.

At this time of year, masses of seeds appear on the plant stems up the whole one-metre height of the plant. With their gentle slow flutter to the ground as they fall, the seeds would make a superb alternative confetti. These small seeds are pink in colour, surrounded by an off-white wing membrane (Greek: pter), then ripen all over to a pale-brown colour. When fully fledged, the seeds loosen from the stem and are dispersed by wind. The membrane grows right around the seed rather than on either side. Not being conveyed a great distance artificially by animals, sidaaf often grow in small loose communities rather than individually. Their leaves are a favourite nibble of that enthusiastic consumer of the Omani countryside, the domestic goat, and have no thorns for a defence.

Growing in full sun and mostly on flat-open areas, sidaaf is distinguished by its bright green so-called ‘linear’ leaves (shaped like miniature knitting needles) in order to reduce water loss. Like the majority of Omani native plants, it generally prefers the firmer anchorage of a gravelly soil to that of plain sand. Most species that grow in deep sand are annuals, which of course are not built to survive the summer. Instead, they die back having shed their seeds, or leave them on dead twigs for later use by nature when conditions improve.

In fact sidaaf is more common in wadis and gullies further inland from Muscat, being quite common from Fanja to Nizwa along roadsides. It also grows some way up the Hajar mountains to about 1,300m. Such is the toughness of its shortish woody stem and root, that it can withstand a flowing wadi. Nevertheless, a community of sidaaf shrubs growing along Wadi Mayh near Yiti took a beating when the abnormal Gonu rain in 2007 hit the coast so badly, uprooting hundreds growing on the flat gravel. Sadly, they haven’t grown back.

Sidaaf belongs to the Polygonaceae family of plants, commonly called the ‘buckwheat’ family. (Common names for plant families, as opposed to scientific ones, are chosen merely on the basis of the plants being the best-known member of the family. So the family known as Asteraceae is called the ‘daisy family’. While buckwheat is grown elsewhere as a kind of cereal, sidaaf leaves and seeds – the taste is bland but not unpleasant – used to be a traditional famine food of the Omani interior (chewed with dried sprat). Medicinal uses of the plant include the leaves being eaten as a remedy for indigestion.

The brown seeds when collected will germinate very easily in an unfertilised soil mixture of plain peat and coarse sand. If the collected seed is still a bit green, allow it to dry for a day or two before putting in soil. Remember that the seeds are designed to fly away in a breeze, so should be anchored with a few grains of coarse sand and covered loosely with some light material.