Salvadora persica

Salvadora persica, called the arak, toothbrush tree or mustard tree, is a small evergreen tree or shrub with a crooked trunk, usually six to seven metres tall. Its bark is cracked and whitish, its dark green leaves are round and fleshy, and its small red fruits grow in clusters and taste juicy but pungent, with a cress or mustard fragrance in the plant as a whole. It is native from the Middle East and North Africa to India and grows on desert floodplains, riverbanks and grassy savannahs, tolerating salty soils and as little as about 200 millimetres of annual rain when groundwater is within reach. Birds such as the grey hypocolius eat the fruit and spread the seeds. Its roots and twigs, sold as miswak, have been chewed as a toothbrush for more than a thousand years across Arabia, Iran, India and Africa. The leaves are eaten in salads and used in traditional medicine, the wood makes charcoal and fodder, and the seeds yield a detergent oil. The genus honours the Spanish apothecary Juan Salvador y Bosca.