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 ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Caryophyllaceae
Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...
.Volker Bittrich. 1993. "Caryophyllaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki. ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants''. volume II, pages 206-236. Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg Germany. Members of this genus and of some other genera in Caryophyllaceae are commonly called sandworts. They are found only in the north
temperate zone
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
. The genus ''Moehringia'' was first formally named 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 1753. It is named after the German naturalist
Paul Möhring
Paul Heinrich Gerhard Möhring (also Paul Mohr; 21 July 1710 in Jever – 28 October 1792) was a German physician, botanist and zoologist.
He studied medicine in Danzig and Wittenberg, and following graduation (1733), he settled as a general pr ...
(1710–1792).
Its
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 ...
is '' Moehringia muscosa''.Index Nominum Genericorum (see External links below) By 1992, there were 31 recognized
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
.Simone Fior and Per Ola Karis. 2007. "Phylogeny, evolution, and systematics of ''Moehringia'' (Caryophyllaceae) as inferred from molecular and morphological data: a case of homology reassessment." ''Cladistics'' 23(4):362-372. In 2007, Fior and Karis transferred four species from ''Moehringia'' to '' Arenaria'', leaving ''Moehringia'' with 27 species. ''M. fontqueri'', ''M. intricata'', ''M. tejedensis'', and ''M. glochidisperma'' were renamed ''A. funiculata'', ''A. suffruticosa'', ''A. tejedensis'', and ''A. glochidisperma'', respectively.