''Halimione'' is a plant genus from the subfamily

Chenopodioideae The Chenopodioideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae in the APG III system, which is largely based on molecular phylogeny, but were included - together with other subfamilies - in family Chenopodiaceae in the Cronquist ...

of the family Amaranthaceae. It is a sister genus of ''

Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and w ...

'' and is included in that genus by

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

Description

The species in genus ''Halimione'' are annual or perennial herbs with silvery grey stems and leaves. Their stems grow prostrate, ascending or erect. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are opposite in lower part and alternate in upper part of the plants. The leaf blade is oblong with entire margins. Plants are

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

. The spicate inflorescences consist of inconspicuous flowers. Male flowers comprise 4-5 perianth segments and 4-5 stamens. Female flowers have 2 totally concrescent, three-lobed bracteoles which enclose the ovary, a perianth is missing. The pericarp is tightly adherent to the inner side of the bracteoles, and also tightly adherent to the seed. The seed is vertically orientated, with a thin, membraneous seed coat. It is anatomically different from ''

'' (which has a brownish, thick and hard seed coat). ''

Halimione pedunculata ''Halimione pedunculata'', the pedunculate sea-purslane, is an annual plant occurring on salty sandy grounds along the seashore. It grows with a standing herbaceous stem up to 30 cm high. The leaves are long and spade shaped. The stipules a ...

'' and '' Halimione verrucifera'' have a chromosome number of 2n = 18, ''Halimione portulacoides'' 2n = 36.

Systematics

The genus has been first described in 1822 as ''Halimus'' by

Karl Friedrich Wallroth Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austrian ...

(in ''Schedulae Criticae'', p. 117). But this name was illegitimate, as there existed already ''Halimus'' Patrick Browne (1756) in family Portulacaceae. replaced this illegitimate name by the valid name ''Halimione'' in 1938 (in: ''Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Basel'', 49, p. 121). Type species is ''

'' (L.) Aellen. During the following years, ''Halimione'' has sometimes been included in ''

''.

Molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

research by Kadereit et al. (2010) revealed that ''Halimione'' is a sister genus of ''Atriplex''. A 2019 study reached the same conclusion. ''Halimione'' comprises 3 species in 2 sections: * ''Halimione'' section ''Halimione'', with one species: ** ''

'' (L.) Aellen (Syn.: ''Atriplex pedunculata'' L.): A halophyte from western Europe to western Asia and the Black Sea. * ''Halimione'' section ''Halimus'' (S.F.Gray) Sukhor., with 2 species: ** '' Halimione portulacoides'' (L.) Aellen (Syn.: ''Atriplex portulacoides'' L.), sea purslane: at the sea shores of western and southern Europe, the mediterranean shores of North Africa to western Asia. ** '' Halimione verrucifera'' (M.Bieb.) Aellen (Syn.: ''Atriplex verrucifera'' M.Bieb.): From eastern and southeast Europe ( Romania, Ukraine) to Southwest Asia and Central Asia to China (Xinjiang)

Distribution

''Halimione'' is distributed in Europe, North Africa, and Asia, ranging from Southwest Asia, and Central Asia to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

( Xinjiang).

References

Gelin Zhu, Sergei L. Mosyakin & Steven E. Clemants: ''Chenopodiaceae''
''Atriplex verrucifera'' - online
In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Hrsg.): ''Flora of China'', Volume 5: ''Ulmaceae through Basellaceae.'', Science Press und Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing und St. Louis, 2003, . Gudrun Kadereit, Evgeny V. Mavrodiev, Elizabeth H. Zacharias & Alexander P. Sukhorukov: Molecular phylogeny of Atripliceae (Chenopodioideae, Chenopodiaceae): Implications for systematics, biogeography, flower and fruit evolution, and the origin of C4 Photosynthesis. In: ''American Journal of Botany'', Volume 97 (10), 2010, p.1664–1687. ''Halimione''
at Tropicos, accessed 2013-07-11. Uotila, P. (2011): Chenopodiaceae (pro parte majore). �
''Halimione''
In: Euro+Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity.

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1328664 Chenopodioideae Amaranthaceae genera