Bienertia cycloptera | |
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Bienertia cycloptera | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Caryophyllales |
Family: | Amaranthaceae |
Genus: | Bienertia |
Species: | B. cycloptera |
Binomial name | |
Bienertia cycloptera | |
Bienertia cycloptera is a species of flowering plant that is native to the Middle East, south-eastern Europe, and central Asia. It is a succulent, smooth annual plant with long, curved, cylindrical leaves. Its flowers have both male and female reproducing parts and its fruits are small and spherical. Bienertia cycloptera grows in hot, dry climates with little rainfall and tolerates soils with high salinity levels very well. Due to its specific growing conditions, B. cycloptera is not a very common, nor widespread plant. Even over most of its range, it often grows sparsely in small patches of growth. One notable aspect of Bienertia cycloptera is its unique C4 photosynthesis mechanism. Unlike most C4 plants, in B. cycloptera the photosynthetic mechanism occurs within a single chlorenchyma cell, without Kranz anatomy. [3] [4] [5]
Bienertia cycloptera is located throughout the Middle East, south-eastern Europe, and central Asia. The plant can be found in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The range of Bienertia cycloptera throughout the Eurasian supercontinent covers an area from 24° to 49° N latitude and from 43° to 67° E longitude. It has an estimated range of 180 sq. km. in the Yerevan floristic region of Armenia, but occupies a mere 28 sq. km. of area. It fits the Deborah Rabinowitz's definition of a rare plant, even though it has a wide geographical range but low abundance where it is present. [4]
Bienertia cycloptera grows in warm climates. It grows in regions where the hottest months have a daily temperature between 20 °C and 30 °C, and annual precipitation ranges from 400mm to 76 mm. Bienertia cycloptera tolerates saline and, temporarily, moist clay soils. The soils are rich in sodium ions and sulfate ions, with salinity ranging between 21 ds/m to 90 ds/m. In most habitats, Climacoptera turcomanica can be found alongside Bienertia cycloptera. [5] [4]
Bienertia cycloptera is an endangered species. Due to the historically saline soils of the Aarat Plain becoming more suitable for humans and therefore less saline, the B. cycloptera have not been able to regrow. It falls under Category 1 of endangered species according to the Red Data Book of Armenia. Conservation efforts have been underway with a protected population in the Vordan Karmir Reservation. These efforts include monitoring the remaining populations and searching for new habitats. [4]
Bienertia cycloptera is characteristically a succulent, smooth, light green annual plant. It typically grows from 15 to 40 cm in length. Habitually, the plant exists in a shrub-like form. They do not have an extensive branching pattern. The leaves are long, cylindrical, and curved. They are directly connected to the stem. They extend outwards. Since many B. cycloptera grow near each other, this pattern of leaves and the long stems lead to the shrub-like appearance of the plant. [5] [4]
As a flower, Bienertia cycloptera produces both male and female flowers on the same plant, classifying as a monoecious plant. The fruits are shaped as small bubbles with a concave head. In its natural habitat, the plant germinates in the spring and then develops into the fall where reproductive growth happens via flowers. There are not enough pictures and research done on B. cycloptera's flowers and fruits that the distinction remains ambiguous. [5] [4] [6]
In Persia, B. cycloptera is widely used for use in alternative medicine, especially for properties associated with antimicrobial, antihyperglycemic, and lipo catalytic properties. However, there is little scientific research showing evidence of this. A recent article that sought to rectify this lack of knowledge by testing B. cycloptera against different microbes and analyzing its lipid composition, finding a strong correlation with microbe reduction and a wide composition of lipids. [7]
The plant B. cycloptera has a unique photosynthetic arrangement. As for the cellular structure of the plant, chlorenchyma cells have rubisco in the chloroplasts of the cell separated by channels and the PEPC in other cytoplasmic channels of the cell. This allows for the unique structure of the single celled C4 plant. [6] This is a unique structure considering that every other C4 plants have spatial separation in the form of cells. However, scientists found evidence for this arrangement by measuring the Carbon-13 isotope values and found it consistent with other C4 species. [8]
In the field of scientific research for agriculture, B. cycloptera has been used as a subject for studying the potential changing of commercial crops from C3 to C4 photosynthetic plants. Studies on B. cycloptera have found that C4 photosynthetic cells are remarkably similar to that of C3 photosynthetic cells, hinting that genetic manipulation may require less anatomical change than previously thought. [9]
Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus Amaranthus. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it the most species-rich lineage within its parent order, Caryophyllales.
C4 carbon fixation or the Hatch–Slack pathway is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in plants. It owes the names to the 1960's discovery by Marshall Davidson Hatch and Charles Roger Slack that some plants, when supplied with 14CO2, incorporate the 14C label into four-carbon molecules first.
The Salicornioideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae. Important characters are succulent, often articulated stems, strongly reduced leaves, and flowers aggregated in thick, dense spike-shaped thyrses. These halophytic plants are distributed worldwide. Many are edible
The Salsoloideae are a subfamily of the Amaranthaceae, formerly in family Chenopodiaceae.
Atriplex semibaccata, commonly known as Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, or creeping saltbush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a perennial herb native to Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, but has been introduced into other states and to overseas countries. It flowers and fruits in spring, and propagates from seed when the fruit splits open. This species of saltbush is adapted to inconsistent rainfall, temperature and humidity extremes and to poor soil. It is used for rehabilitation, medicine, as a cover crop and for fodder. Its introduction to other countries has had an environmental and economic impact on them.
Suaeda is a genus of plants also known as seepweeds and sea-blites. Most species are confined to saline or alkaline soil habitats, such as coastal salt-flats and tidal wetlands. Many species have thick, succulent leaves, a characteristic seen in various plant genera that thrive in salty habitats.
Atriplex cinerea, commonly known as grey saltbush, coast saltbush, barilla or truganini, is a plant species in the family Amaranthaceae. It occurs in sheltered coastal areas and around salt lakes in the Australian states of Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.
Grayia is a genus of plants in the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae. Common names are siltbush and hopsage. The four shrubby species occur in arid and semiarid regions of western North America:
Tecticornia pergranulata is a succulent halophytic plant species in the family Chenopodiaceae, native to Australia. This plant is commonly tested in labs involving its C3 photosynthesis and its unique resistance to salinity and adversity.
A xerophyte is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water, such as a desert such as the Sahara or places in the Alps or the Arctic. Popular examples of xerophytes are cacti, pineapple and some Gymnosperm plants.
Halothamnus is a genus in the subfamily Salsoloideae of the family Amaranthaceae. The scientific name means saltbush, from the Greek ἅλς (hals) "salt" and θαμνος (thamnos) "bush". This refers either to salty habitats or to the accumulation of salt in the plants. The genus is distributed from Southwest and Central Asia to the Arabian peninsula and East Africa.
Suaeda aralocaspica is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae that is restricted to the deserts of Central Asia. It is a halophyte and uses C4 carbon fixation but lacks the characteristic leaf anatomy of other C4 plants (known as kranz anatomy). Carrying out complete C4 photosynthesis within individual cells, these plants instead are known as single‐cell C4 system or SCC4 plants. This makes them distinct from typical C4 plants, which require the collaboration of two types of photosynthetic cells. SCC4 plants have features that make them potentially valuable in engineering higher photosynthetic efficiencies in agriculturally important C3 carbon fixation species such as rice. To address this, the 467 Mb genome of S. aralocaspica has been sequenced to help understanding of the evolution of SCC4 photosynthesis and contribute to the engineering of C4 photosynthesis into other economically important crops.
Haloxylon is a genus of shrubs or small trees, belonging to the plant family Amaranthaceae. Haloxylon and its species are known by the common name saxaul. According to Dmitry Ushakov, the name borrowed from the Kazakh "seksevil". In modern Kazakh language, the shrub is called "seksewil". According to the school etymological dictionary, the name saksaul was borrowed in the 19th century from the Turkic languages.
The Suaedoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Amaranthaceae.
The Corispermoideae are a subfamily of the Amaranthaceae, formerly in family Chenopodiaceae.
Stutzia is a plant genus in the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae. It was described in 2010, replacing the illegitimate name Endolepis. It comprises two species, that have also been included in the genus Atriplex.
Proatriplex is a monotypic plant genus in the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae, with the only species Proatriplex pleiantha. It is known by the common names four-corners orach and Mancos shadscale. It occurs in the Navajo Basin of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.
Bienertia sinuspersici is a flowering plant that currently is classified in the family Amaranthaceae, although it was previously considered to belong to the family Chenopodiaceae.
Bienertia is a flowering plant genus that currently is classified in the family Amaranthaceae s.l.. For long time, the genus was considered to consist only of one species, Bienertia cycloptera, but in 2005 and 2012, two new species have been separated.