'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎139v] (283/862)

IQ 4 CLIMATE, VEGETATION, AND FAUNA
leaves, white flowers, and small round fruits. The seeds and stem
yield a reddish-violet dye. Two common shrubs in the northern
parts of the alluvial plain are the boxthorn {Lycium barbarum) and the
caper (Capparis spinosa), which is a trailing brambly shrub with large
white flowers and fig-shaped fruits. The fruit, which often bursts,
exposing a reddish interior, is edible; the flower buds are pickled and
used as a condiment. Both these bushes are grazed by camels and
sheep.
4. Assyrian Plains and Kurdish Foothills
Northwards, the winter season becomes longer and colder, and the
rainfall increases considerably. The summers, though shorter, are
much the same as in lower Iraq. Here the spring vegetation is richer
and less monotonous than in the south and the summer perennials
are more numerous. Conditions, in fact, are more steppe-like than
in the lower plains.
A much larger proportion of the land is cultivated in this area,
almost the whole of the plain of Erbil being divided into cultivated
fields, as well as a large part of the plains of Mosul and Kirkuk. But
there are still areas of natural vegetation and quite large expanses are
uncultivated in the Jazira north-west of Mosul (photo. 24).
One of the commonest communities found in these northern plains
consists chiefly of Phlomis Bruguierii and P. orientalis, two tufted
perennial herbs, with purplish and yellow flowers respectively, be
longing to the sage family. They generally grow in small clumps and
possess grey felty undivided leaves. With them is also associated
Cousinia stenocephala, a spiny perennial member of the daisy family
with purplish flowers. These constitute the summer vegetation. In
the spring a close green herbage arises, composed oiPoa sinaica, Car ex
stenophylla, and Ranunculus asiaticus, together with many other small
annuals and perennials. Ranunculus asiaticus is a buttercup with
large brilliant scarlet flowers, which are often mistaken for poppies,
and which in masses give the landscape a reddish glow. After the
spring flowers have withered away and begun to expose bare earth,
the clumps of Phlomis and Cousinia begin to blossom. Many other
plants are associated locally with the foregoing, including Prosopis,
mugweed, plantains, St. John’s wort, rock roses, and stork’s-bill, &c.
A community which seems to be common west and north-west of
Mosul consists principally of Centaurea Behen var., a broad-leaved
herb several feet high belonging to the daisy family. The woody
rootstock is much used for fuel, and the plants sometimes grow so