| Suaedoideae | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Suaeda nigra | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Amaranthaceae |
| Subfamily: | Suaedoideae Ulbr. |
| Genera | |
about 2 genera, see text | |
The Suaedoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Amaranthaceae (now including the former family Chenopodiaceae).
The Suaedoideae have well-developed leaves. Except for genus Bienertia , the leaves show a central and many lateral vascular bundles. The leaves are neither decurrent nor amplexicaul.
The inflorescences are axillary cymes. The flowers are sitting free in the axils of bracts, with lateral bracteoles. The perianth consists of 5 tepals, which are more or less fused basally. 5 stamens are present. The seed encloses a spiral embryo, mostly without any perisperm.
The Suaedoideae have a nearly worldwide distribution. They are important members of the vegetation of shores and salty inland habitats. They are especially common in dry (arid) regions.
Among the species of Suaedoideae, there are nearly equal numbers of C3-plants and C4-plants. During the evolution of the subfamily, the C4-photosynthesis pathway seems to have been derived from four independent origins: two times with Kranz C4 anatomy in Suaeda section Salsina and Suaeda section Schoberia. Two independent origins of non-Kranz C4 systems are found in Bienertia and Suaeda section Borszczowia. In these plants, the photosynthesis pathways are located without spatial separation in a "single cell C4" type. [1]
According to phylogenetic research by Kapralov et al. (2006), the Suaedoideae are grouped in 2 tribes:
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 discovery by Marshall Davidson Hatch and Charles Roger Slack that some plants, when supplied with 14CO
2, 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.
The Salsoloideae are a subfamily of the Amaranthaceae, formerly in family Chenopodiaceae.
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.
Salsola is a genus of the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae. The genus sensu stricto is distributed in central and southwestern Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. A common name of various members of this genus and related genera is saltwort, for their salt tolerance. The genus name Salsola is from the Latin salsus, meaning "salty".
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 2 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.
Bassia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae. They are distributed in the western Mediterranean to eastern Asia. Some occur outside their native ranges as introduced species.
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 borrowed in the XIX century from the Turkic languages.
The Betoideae are a small subfamily of the flowering plant amaranth family, Amaranthaceae sensu lato. Commonly known members include beet, sugar beet, chard, and mangelwurzel, which all are cultivars of Beta vulgaris.
Camphorosmeae is a species-rich tribe of the Amaranthaceae, formerly Chenopodiaceae, with 20 genera and about 179 species. It is classified as a single tribe of subfamily Camphorosmoideae.
The Polycnemoideae are a small subfamily of plants in the family Amaranthaceae, representing a basal evolutionary lineage. The few relictual species are distributed in Eurasia and North Africa, North America, and Australia.
Kali is a genus of plants in the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae. Common names of various members of this genus include tumbleweed for its wind-blown seed dispersal habit, and Tartar thistle and Russian thistle for its origins.
Anabasis is a genus of plants in the subfamily Salsoloideae of the family Amaranthaceae. It is distributed in southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia.
The Corispermoideae are a subfamily of the Amaranthaceae, formerly in family Chenopodiaceae.
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.
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.
Camphorosma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae, found in northern Africa, southern and eastern Europe, Crimea, Russia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, the Altai, western Siberia, Xinjiang in China, and Mongolia. Annuals or subshrubs, they can be distinguished from closely related taxa such as Bassia by their flattened perianths which have four lobes, inflorescences with multicellular glandular hairs, a distinct C4 leaf anatomy type (called the Camphorosma type), and a chromosome count of 2n = 12.
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