21 species, see text Halothamnus is a genus in the subfamily Salsoloideae of the family Amaranthaceae (s.l., now including Chenopodiaceae).

The genus is distributed from Southwest and Central Asia to the Arabian peninsula and East Africa.

The pollen grains are nearly ball-shaped, 18-38 μm in diameter, with 12-29 pores scattered all over the surface (pantoporate), just like it is typically for the goosefoot-family.

The fruits enclosed by the hardened perianth are dispersed by the wind (anemochory), lifted up by their wings up to 20 mm in diameter.

They live on rocky, clayish, or sandy soils; many species tolerate saline conditions.

Halothamnus subaphyllus is planted for the stabilisation of mobile sands[6] and for the production of the medically used alkaloid Salsolin.

The genus Halothamnus was first described in 1845 by Hippolyte François Jaubert and Édouard Spach (in Illustrationes Plantarum Orientalium, 2, 50, pl.

In 1981, Victor Petrovič Botschantzev included the genus Aellenia here and enlarged Halothamnus to 25 species.