The most obvious landscape feature as you fly into Agadir airport over the Souss valley is the scattering of small trees, reminiscent of cork oak dehesa in Iberia, or of the olive and carob groves of the eastern Mediterranean. These trees are Argania spinosa, the Argan tree, endemic to this corner of Morocco, between the High Atlas and the Anti Atlas, and a key part of local life.
The olive-like fruit are used to produce, via a rather complicated and labour-intensive process, Argan oil which is used both for culinary and for cosmetic purposes. Traditionally, the best oil come from Argan nuts which have passed through the digestive tract of a goat... the nuts are then cracked open by hand, and then milled for their oil, again traditionally by hand by the village women. Several of the villages we visited are home to co-operatives of local women, producing Argan products, a vital part of the rural economy.
Some of the more exciting plants we found in the south were Saharan species, growing here at the northern edge of their range.
Warionia saharae near Cap Rhir
Calotropis procera, a semi-succulent and very toxic shrub, at the foothills of the Anti Atlas
Elizaldia calycina at Oued Massa
The bizarre succulent Orbea decaisneana
Along the coast, and stretching up into the mountains, we enjoyed the succulent, spiny, cactus-like Euphorbia officinarum, a Macaronesian species with a very variable growth form, depending on the local conditions and climate.
and parasitised along the coast, by Striga gesnerioides, a member of the Orobanchaceae.
And some nice plants of the mountains: Linaria ventricosa
Polygala balansae, a very thorny shrub
and Sedum modestum, a plant endemic to the High Atlas, Middle Atlas and Anti Atlas mountains of Morocco.
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