Tecticornia | |
---|---|
Samphire, Tecticornia pergranulata | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Caryophyllales |
Family: | Amaranthaceae |
Subfamily: | Salicornioideae |
Genus: | Tecticornia Hook. f. |
Species | |
ca. 44 species, see text |
Tecticornia is a genus of succulent, salt tolerant plants largely endemic to Australia. Taxa in the genus are commonly referred to as samphires. [1] In 2007, the genus Halosarcia, along with three other Australian genera (Pachycornia, Sclerostegia and Tegicornia) was incorporated into the genus.
The species of Tecticornia grow as annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs or small shrubs. Stems are branched, glabrous and appear jointed. The opposite leaves are fleshy, glabrous, connate in the lower part and cup-like or collar-like stem-clasping, with minute (0–3 mm long) two-lobed to triangular leaf blades. [2]
The spike-shaped inflorescences consist of opposite bracts, mostly connate and stem-clasping, free in some species. Their blades are cup- or collar-like or deltoid to semi-circular scales. In the axil of each bract, there are three to five (rarely one or seven) flowers, free or sometimes fused to each other, to the bract, and to the inflorescence axis. The flowers are hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual. They consist of a 2-3-lobed perianth of connate tepals, one stamen, and an ovary with two stigmas. [2]
In fruit, the perianth remains membranous or becomes crustaceous, spongy, or horny. The fruit wall (pericarp) may be membranous, fleshy, crustaceous, or woody. The seed is disc-shaped or wedge-shaped, its seed coat with smooth or reticulate, tuberculate or longitudinally ribbed surface. The seed contains the curved embryo and copious perisperm (feeding tissue). [2]
All species of Tecticornia are distributed in Australia. Only one species, Tecticornia indica (Syn. Halosarcia indica, Arthrocnenum indicum) has a wider range outside this continent along the tropical coasts of the Indian Ocean to eastern and western tropical Africa. [2]
The first publication of Tecticornia was made in 1880 by Joseph Dalton Hooker. [3] The type species of this genus is Tecticornia cinerea(F. Muell.) Baill, [4] which is a synonym of Tecticornia australasica . Tecticornia used to be a small genus with just three species, until in 2007, the genera Halosarcia, Pachycornia, Sclerostegia and Tegicornia were included. [5]
Phylogenetical research of the subfamily Salicornioideae revealed that the Tecticornia/Halosarcia/Pachycornia/Sclerostegia/Tegicornia lineage is a sister group of Sarcocornia/Salicornia . [2]
In 2016, Tecticornia comprises about 44 species, [6] eleven species were described recently. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] (distributions as given by Australian Plant Census (2008). [6]
Young twigs of Tecticornia indica can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. In Madagascar, they are pickled in vinegar and used as a spice. [17]
Salicornia is a genus of succulent, halophyte flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species are native to North America, Europe, South Africa, and South Asia. Common names for the genus include glasswort, pickleweed, picklegrass, and marsh samphire; these common names are also used for some species not in Salicornia. To French speakers in Atlantic Canada, they are known, colloquially, as "titines de souris". The main European species is often eaten, called marsh samphire in Britain, and the main North American species is occasionally sold in grocery stores or appears on restaurant menus, usually as 'sea beans' or samphire greens or sea asparagus.
Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies.
Sarcocornia is a genus of flowering plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. They are known commonly as samphires, glassworts, or saltworts. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and is most diverse in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa.
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.
Maireana sedifolia, also known as the bluebush or pearl bluebrush is a compact shrub endemic to Australia, and found in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. It is used in pasture and as a garden plant where it is popular due to its distinctive grey foliage.
The glassworts are various succulent, annual halophytic plants, that is, plants that thrive in saline environments, such as seacoasts and salt marshes. The original English glasswort plants belong to the genus Salicornia, but today the glassworts include halophyte plants from several genera, some of which are native to continents unknown to the medieval English, and growing in ecosystems, such as mangrove swamps, never envisioned when the term glasswort was coined.
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.
Sarcocornia quinqueflora, commonly known as beaded samphire, bead weed, beaded glasswort or glasswort, is a species of succulent halophytic coastal shrub. It occurs in wetter coastal areas of Australia and New Zealand.
Tecticornia halocnemoides, commonly known as shrubby samphire or grey glasswort, is a species of succulent, salt tolerant plant endemic to Australia. It grows as a spreading or erect shrub up to fifty centimetres high. It was first published as Arthrocnemum halocnemoides in 1845, but transferred into Halosarcia in 1980, and into Tecticornia in 2007.
Tecticornia arbuscula, the shrubby glasswort or scrubby samphire, is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae, native to Australia. It is a shrub that grows to 2 metres in height, with a spreading habit. It has succulent swollen branchlets with small leaf lobes.
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.
Tecticornia indica is a species of plant that is succulent and halophyte which grows in salt marshes on tropical areas of the world. This plant belongs to the Chenopodiaceae, which are now included in family Amaranthaceae.
Salicornia europaea, known as common glasswort or just glasswort, is a halophytic annual dicot flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. Glasswort is a succulent herb also known as ‘Pickle weed’ or ‘Marsh samphire’.As a succulent, it has high water content, which accounts for its slightly translucent look and gives it the descriptive name “glasswort.” To some people, it is known as “chicken toe” because of its shape. To others, it is called “saltwort.” It grows in various zones of intertidal salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves.
Arthrocnemum is a genus of shrubs in the family Amaranthaceae. Plants are halophytes with fleshy, apparently articulated plant stems and reduced leaves and flowers. There are two species, occurring from Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region, to western tropical Africa and Macaronesia. An American species will have to be excluded.
Halopeplis is a genus in the family Amaranthaceae. The plants are halophytes with not articulated stems and fleshy stem-clasping leaves. There are three species, occurring from the Mediterranean basin and North Africa to Southwest Asia and Central Asia.
Microcnemum is a genus in the plant family Amaranthaceae, containing a single species, Microcnemum coralloides. It is a dwarf annual halophyte with fleshy, apparently jointed stems and reduced leaves and flowers. The two subspecies show a disjunct distribution in Spain and Western Asia.
Petrophile conifera is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a bushy, much-branched shrub with pinnate, sharply-pointed leaves, and oval heads of hairy, cream-coloured to yellowish white flowers.
Maireana pyramidata is a species of plant within the genus, Maireana, in the family Amaranthaceae. It is endemic to Australia, and widespread throughout Australia in the inland, where it is found in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Paul Graham Wilson is an Australian botanist. He has been the most prolific contributor to the journal Nuytsia, contributing to the first issue in 1970 and to the 12th volume in 1998, which was dedicated to him for his contributions to plant taxonomy and to celebrate his 70th birthday. Since his retirement from the Western Australian Herbarium in 1993, he has helped to maintain a comprehensive census of the flora of Western Australia.
Kelly Anne Shepherd is an Australian botanist, who has published some 91 names.