Limonium

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Limonium
Limonium perezii 3.jpg
Limonium perezii at the San Francisco Botanical Garden
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Plumbaginaceae
Genus: Limonium
Mill.
Species

About 600 species; see text

Limonium is a genus of about 600 flowering plant species. Members are also known as sea-lavender, statice, caspia or marsh-rosemary. Despite their common names, species are not related to the lavenders or to rosemary. They are instead in Plumbaginaceae, the plumbago or leadwort family. The generic name is from the Latin līmōnion, used by Pliny for a wild plant and is ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek leimon ( λειμών , 'meadow'). [1]

Contents

Distribution

The genus has a subcosmopolitan distribution in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America. By far the greatest diversity (over 100 species) is in the area stretching from the Canary Islands east through the Mediterranean region to central Asia; for comparison, North America only has three native Limonium species. [2]

Description

Sea-lavenders normally grow as herbaceous perennial plants, growing 10–70 cm tall from a rhizome; a few (mainly from the Canary Islands) are woody shrubs up to 2 metres tall. Many species flourish in saline soils, and are therefore common near coasts and in salt marshes, and also on saline, gypsum and alkaline soils in continental interiors.

The leaves are simple, entire to lobed, and from 1–30 cm long and 0.5–10 cm broad; most of the leaves are produced in a dense basal rosette, with the flowering stems bearing only small brown scale-leaves (bracts). The flowers are produced on a branched panicle or corymb, the individual flowers are small (4–10 mm long) with a five-lobed calyx and corolla, and five stamens; the flower colour is pink or violet to purple in most species, white or yellow in a few. Many of the species are apomictic. The fruit is a small capsule containing a single seed, partly enclosed by the persistent calyx.

Features

Several species are popular garden flowers; they are generally known to gardeners as statices. They are grown both for their flowers and for the appearance of the calyx, which remains on the plant after the true flowers have fallen, and are known as "everlasting flowers".

Species

There are about 600 species in the genus, many of them local endemic species with a very restricted range. [3] Species not given a common name here are generally referred to simply as "sea-lavender", "statice," or "marsh-rosemary".

Limonium scabrum Limonium scabrum00.jpg
Limonium scabrum
Limonium macrophyllum Limonium macrophyllum.jpg
Limonium macrophyllum

Some species formerly included in Limonium, e.g. L. tataricum, have now been transferred to the separate genus Goniolimon .

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<i>Limonium binervosum</i> Species of flowering plant

Limonium binervosum, commonly known as rock sea-lavender, is an aggregate species in the family Plumbaginaceae.

<i>Limonium sinuatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Limonium sinuatum, commonly known as wavyleaf sea lavender, statice, sea lavender, notch leaf marsh rosemary, sea pink, is a Mediterranean plant species in the family Plumbaginaceae known for its papery flowers that can be used in dried arrangements.

<i>Limonium arboreum</i> Species of flowering plant

Limonium arboreum is a species of sea lavender known by the common name tree limonium and siempreviva. It is endemic to the Canary Islands, where it is a plant of coastal habitat.

<i>Limonium perezii</i> Species of flowering plant

Limonium perezii is a species of Limonium known by the common names Perez's sea lavender and seafoam statice. It is also known as simply statice, sea lavender or marsh rosemary. It is native to the coasts of the Canary Islands but are widely used in gardens throughout the world.

<i>Tolpis</i>

Tolpis is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. It is native to Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East and Macaronesia. Many species are limited to the Canary Islands.

<i>Limonium bellidifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Limonium bellidifolium, commonly known as the matted sea-lavender, is an aggregate species in the family Plumbaginaceae.

<i>Limonium narbonense</i> Species of flowering plant

Limonium narbonense is a species of sea lavender belonging to the family Plumbaginaceae.

<i>Limoniastrum monopetalum</i> Species of plant in the Plumbaginaceae family

Limoniastrum monopetalum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae that is native to between Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia. It has been found in salt marshes, dunes and other coastal areas with high salinity levels. It has silver-grey or light green leaves on multi branching stems. At the ends of the stems are the summer blooming flowers, in shades of pink, purple, lavender and violet. It is known to be salt and drought tolerant, as well as having the ability to withstand some forms of soil pollution.

Limonium jovibarba is a species of flowering plants of the family Plumbaginaceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde. It is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. The species was named by Carl Ernst Otto Kunze in 1891. Its local name is carqueja, a name that may also refer to the related species Limonium brunneri and Limonium braunii.

Limonium brunneri is a species of flowering plants of the family Plumbaginaceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde. It is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. The species was named by Carl Ernst Otto Kunze in 1891. Its local name is carqueja, a name that may also refer to the related species Limonium braunii and Limonium jovibarba.

Limonium braunii is a species of flowering plants of the family Plumbaginaceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde. It is listed as an endangered plant by the IUCN. The species was first described by the German Carl August Bolle as Statice braunii and was placed in the genus Limonium by the French Auguste Chevalier in 1935. Its local name is carqueja, a name that may also refer to the related species Limonium brunneri and Limonium jovibarba.

Limonium lobinii is a species of flowering plants of the family Plumbaginaceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde. It is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN. The species was first described by Norbert Kilian and Teresa Leyens in 1994. Its local name is carqueja-de-Santiago.

Limonium sundingii is a species of flowers that belong to the family Plumbaginaceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde. It is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.

<i>Limonium platyphyllum</i> Species of plant

Limonium platyphyllum, the broad-leaved statice, or florist's sea lavender, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae. It is native to the Black Sea region; Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Crimea, south and east European Russia, and the Caucasus, and it has been introduced to Great Britain. A perennial halophyte 60 to 75 cm tall, it is widely available from commercial suppliers. There are a number of cultivars, including the well-known 'Violetta' which has darker petals.

<i>Limonium gmelini</i> Species of plant

Limonium gmelini, the Siberian statice, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to east-central and southeastern Europe, Russia, the north Caucasus, Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, parts of Siberia, Xinjiang, and Mongolia. A widespread halophytic species, it is found growing in seeps, meadows, steppes, roadsides, and wastelands, as long as they are saline.

Limonium otolepis, the saltmarsh sea lavender, lacy sea lavender or Asian sea lavender, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae. It is native to Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Xinjiang and western Gansu in China. A halophyte, it is common in saline areas, such as the bed of the former Aral Sea. It has been introduced to California as a garden escapee, and is also present in southeastern Australia. There appears to be an ornamental cultivar, 'Lavender Lace'.

<i>Limonium bonduellei</i> Species of plant

Limonium bonduellei, the yellow statice, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility calls it Algerian statice and lists it as Limonium sinuatum subsp. bonduellei, but a 2018 molecular study showed that it is good species with 100% bootstrap support. An annual facultative halophyte reaching 50 cm (20 in), it is native to Spain and North Africa, and has been introduced to Italy. It is naturalized in New Zealand.

<i>Limonium lobatum</i> Species of plant

Limonium lobatum, the winged sea-lavender, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to the Canary Islands, Spain, Greece, North Africa, and the Middle East as far as Iran. It is an incipient invasive in Australia.

References

  1. ↑ "limonium" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ↑ Flora of North America
  3. ↑ Koutroumpa, Konstantina; Theodoridis, Spyros; Warren, Ben H.; Jiménez, Ares; Celep, Ferhat; Doğan, Musa; Romeiras, Maria M.; Santos-Guerra, Arnoldo; Fernández-Palacios, Jóse María; Caujapé-Castells, Juli; Moura, Mónica; Menezes De Sequeira, Miguel; Conti, Elena (2018). "An expanded molecular phylogeny of Plumbaginaceae, with emphasis on Limonium (sea lavenders): Taxonomic implications and biogeographic considerations". Ecology and Evolution. 8 (24): 12397–12424. doi:10.1002/ece3.4553. PMC   6308857 . PMID   30619554. S2CID   57573184.
  4. ↑ Mozaffarian, V. 1996. A dictionary of Iranian plant names: Latin, English, Persian. Tehran: Farhang-e Moʻaser.
  5. ↑ Flora Europaea
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