Balancón (Traganum moquinii)

Shrub up to 1.5 m (sometimes more), woody, succulent, erect and evergreen. Leaves are narrowly oblong or oval, small, fleshy but tough, and dark green. Flowers are solitary, axillary, tiny and yellowish. Seeds are tiny and light. This psammophile is highly characteristic of sandy areas on the coast and inland sand dunes in the Canaries (La Gomera, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lobos, Lanzarote and La Graciosa), Cape Verde (Sal and Maio) and in Northwest Africa, where it grows along the Atlantic seaboard from Morocco to Mauritania. Locally abundant, it can also dominate dunes and sandy soils, as occurs in the easternmost Canary Islands, where it grows in large formations.