''Gunniopsis septifraga'', commonly known as green pigface, is a species of flowering plant in the iceplant family,

Aizoaceae The Aizoaceae, or fig-marigold family, is a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is d ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Australia. It is a prostrate to tuft-forming

annual Annual may refer to: * Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook ** Literary annual * Annual plant * Annual report * Annual giving * Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco * Annuals (b ...

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

, with oblong to lance-shaped leaves and small greenish flowers, that grows around salt lakes.

Description

''Gunniopsis septifrage'' is a prostrate to tuft-forming,

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

, annual herb that typically grows to high and wide. It has thick, yellow,

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

to sparsely hairy stems and oblong to lance-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide. The flowers are arranged singly and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, or on a short

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

, with the

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

long and fused for about one-third of its length with four triangular lobes. The inside of the perianth is green and the outside greenish yellow, the lobes usually alternating with four

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s. Flowering occurs from July to October and the fruit is a capsule that is more or less spherical with a cylindrical tip, and contains wrinkled, white to transparent, comma-shaped seeds.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described as ''Gunnia septifraga'' by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in 1859 in ''Report on the Plants Collected During Mr.

Babbage's GameStop Corp. is an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), and is the largest video game retailer worldwide. , the company operates 4,5 ...

Expedition into the North West Interior of South Australia in 1858'', presented to the Parliament of Victoria. The type specimens were collected near "Stuart's Creek" b
Joseph Herrgott
In 1867

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

described ''Gunnia drummondii'' in ''

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume flora of Australia published be ...

'' but both ''Gunnia septifraga'' and ''G. drummondii'' were later reclassified as ''Neogunnia septifraga'' and ''N. drummondii'' by Ferdinand Pax and

Käthe Hoffmann Käthe Hoffmann (born 1883) was a German botanist who described many plant species in New Guinea and South East Asia including ''Annesijoa novoguineensis''. She was a professor at Breslau, German Empire, (now Wroclaw, Poland) and made a significant ...

Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on alpha taxonomy, plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families'' ...

and

Karl Anton Eugen Prantl Karl Anton Eugen Prantl (10 September 1849 – 24 February 1893), also known as Carl Anton Eugen Prantl, was a German botanist. Prantl was born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, and studied in Munich. In 1870 he graduated with the dissertation ...

's 1934 work '' Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien''. In 1983,

Robert Chinnock Robert James "Bob" Chinnock (born 3 July 1943) is a New Zealand-born Australian botanist who worked at the State Herbarium of South Australia as a senior biologist. He retired in 2008 but still works as an honorary research associate. His resear ...

changed the name ''Neogunnia saxifraga'' to ''Gunniopsis saxifraga'' in the ''

Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace, Adelaide, North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old ...

'', the genus ''Gunniopsis'' having been described in 1889 by Pax. Chinnock considered ''Neogunnia drummondii'' to be a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''N. saxifraga'' and that interpretation is accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''septifraga'') means to break and refers to how the seed pod breaks open.

Distribution

Green pigface grows in extremely saline situations, around the edges and in the damp bottoms of salt lakes and salt pans, often forming dense patches around ''

Tecticornia ''Tecticornia'' is a genus of succulent, salt tolerant plants largely endemic to Australia. Taxa in the genus are commonly referred to as samphires. In 2007, the genus ''Halosarcia'', along with three other Australian genera (''Pachycornia'', ' ...

'' shrubs. It occurs in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

, Wheatbelt and Goldfields-Esperance regions of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

and in arid inland areas of the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15590785 septifraga Flora of Western Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of the Northern Territory Plants described in 1859 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller