:Koenigia'' as described by

Philibert Commerçon Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769. ...

is a synonym of ''

Dombeya ''Dombeya'' is a flowering plant genus. Traditionally included in the family Sterculiaceae, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae in the APG and most subsequent systematics. These plants are known by a number of vernacular names which sometim ...

. ''Koenigia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s in the family

Polygonaceae The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus ''Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 ...

. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''.

Description

Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual or perennial

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

s, growing from taproots. The flowers are arranged in terminal or axillary

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s. The flowers have pale

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s: white, greenish to yellowish white or pink. The seeds are borne in

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

s that are usually brown or black in colour and not winged.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Koenigia'' was erected by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1767, initially for the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

Koenigia islandica ''Koenigia islandica'' is a species of annual flowering plant in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae and is the type species of the genus ''Koenigia''. It is a very small plant and is found growing on wet gravel and scree in arctic tundra and alpi ...

''. The boundaries between genera in the family Polygonaceae, and the relationships among them, have long been a problem. At one time, many species were placed in the genus ''

Polygonum ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plant in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

''. ''Koenigia'' is placed in the subfamily

Polygonoideae Polygonoideae is a subfamily of plants in the family Polygonaceae. It includes a number of plants that can be highly invasive, such as Japanese knotweed, ''Reynoutria japonica'', and its hybrid with '' R. sachalinensis'', ''R.'' × ''bohemica'' ...

, tribe Persicarieae, whose taxonomic history has been described as "exceptionally convoluted, even by Polygonaceae standards". A

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 ...

study of the subfamily

in 2015 showed that the genus ''Koenigia'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

with respect to the genus ''Aconogonon''. An earlier study had reached a similar conclusion, and had suggested that extra genera be created to maintain

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

taxa. The authors of the 2015 study preferred the alternative of merging the two genera, a proposal accepted by other sources. Using broad circumscriptions of the genera, the 2015 study suggested that relationships within the tribe Persicarieae were:

Species

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 ...

accepted the following species: *'' Koenigia alaskana'' (Small) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia alpina ''Koenigia alpina'' (synonym ''Aconogonon alpinum''), commonly known as alpine knotweed, is similar to '' Koenigia alaskana'', but differs in leaf size and achene characteristics. It is native to Europe and temperate Asia. It is one of the pare ...

'' (All.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia campanulata ''Koenigia campanulata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae. It is native to China (Guizhou, west Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet), Bhutan, north Myanmar, Nepal and Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India ...

'' (Hook.f.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia cathayana :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (A.J.Li) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia chuanzangensis :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' Z.Z.Zhou & Y.J.Min *''

Koenigia coriaria :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (Grig.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia cyanandra :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (Diels) Mesícek & Soják *''

Koenigia davisiae ''Koenigia davisiae'' is a flowering plant in the knotweed family that is known by the common names Davis' knotweed or Newberry knotweed. Distribution ''Koenigia davisiae'' is native to the western United States from Washington, Oregon, and cen ...

'' (W.H.Brewer ex A.Gray) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia delicatula :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (Meisn.) H.Hara *'' Koenigia divaricata'' (L.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal * ''Koenigia'' × ''fennica'' f(Reiersen) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia fertilis'' Maxim. *'' Koenigia filicaulis'' (Wall. ex Meisn.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia forrestii'' (Diels) Mesícek & Soják *'' Koenigia hedbergii'' Bo Li & W.Du *'' Koenigia hookeri'' (Meisn.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

'' L. *'' Koenigia jurii'' (A.K.Skvortsov) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia lichiangensis'' (W.W.Sm.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia limosa'' (Kom.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia mollis'' (D.Don) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia nepalensis'' D.Don *'' Koenigia nummularifolia'' (Meisn.) Mesícek & Soják *'' Koenigia ocreata'' (L.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia panjutinii'' (Kharkev.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia phytolaccifolia ''Koenigia phytolaccifolia'' (synonym ''Aconogonon phytolaccifolium'') is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family, known by the common name poke knotweed. Description ''Koenigia phytolaccifolia'' is a perennial herb up to tall. The ...

'' (Meisn. ex Small) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia pilosa'' Maxim. *'' Koenigia polystachya'' (Wall. ex Meisn.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia relicta'' (Kom.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia rumicifolia'' (Royle ex Bab.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia songarica'' (Schrenk) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia tortuosa'' (D.Don) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia tripterocarpa'' (A.Gray) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia weyrichii ''Koenigia weyrichii'' (synonym ''Persicaria weyrichii''), the Chinese knotweed or Weyrich's knotweed, is a large, perennial, rhizomatous herb native to East Asia. It is one of the parents of the cultivated hybrid ''Koenigia'' × ''fennica'', t ...

'' (F.Schmidt) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia yatagaiana'' (T.Mori) T.C.Hsu & S.W.Chung

Distribution and habitat

''Koenigia'' species are found in meadows, along stream banks, or on rocky slopes in arctic, temperate and alpine regions of the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2031320, from2=Q4059723 Polygonaceae genera Polygonoideae Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus