true rose of Jericho

A plant with great resistance to desiccation. Despite it being an annual, the plant lignifies after completing its life cycle, turning into a persistent woody skeleton. Its branches have the property of contracting with dryness into the shape of a closed fist, maintaining its seed bank. The dead skeletal form can remain in situ for many years, reopening with moisture or contact with water. After the rainy season, the plant dries up, dropping leaves and curling branches into a tight ball, and aestivates. Within the ball, the fruits remain attached and closed, protecting the seeds and preventing them from being dispersed prematurely. The seeds are very hardy and can remain dormant for years. Moistened again in a later rainy season, the ball uncurls and the plant wakes up from its dormant state, which causes the capsular fruits to open to disperse the seeds. If water is sufficient, the dispersed seeds germinate within hours. After it curls, it is easy for the wind itself to lift and drag it large distances, making them obligatory travelers through steppes and deserts crossing the borders of various countries in Asia and disseminating their seeds for all of them. A fraction of the seeds are dispersed in the vicinity of the parent plant by raindrops hitting a spoon-like appendix on the seeds. …

Anastatica is found in arid areas in the Middle East and the Sahara Desert, including parts of North Africa and regions of Iran, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Pakistan.

Since ancient times it was used as an element to guess the climate, since being a vegetable hygrometer, the wise man or shaman, predicted it with success. In dry weather the plant remains completely closed; in wet weather, it opens slowly; if it threatens rain, it opens in a very showy way and with more or less speed according to the proximity of discharge of the clouds.