''Paronychia argentea'' (Algerian Tea) is an

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 ...

from the family

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 ...

that grows in sandy areas, ways, abandoned fields and dry terrains. Flore_(40)

Description

It is an annual species with procumbent habits, which reaches 30 cm height. Similar to '' Paronychia capitata'' but with almost all

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 ...

leaves, a rigid and prominent sow, and calyx lobules with transparent margins. The stem is glabrous or pubescent, with opposite, elliptical and mucronate leaves. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s grow in lateral and terminal glomerulus. They are

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrate ...

pentamerous Merosity (from the greek "méros," which means "having parts") refers to the number of component parts in a distinct whorl of a plant structure. The term is most commonly used in the context of a flower where it refers to the number of sepals in a ...

and

actinomorphic Floral symmetry describes whether, and how, a flower, in particular its perianth, can be divided into two or more identical or mirror-image parts. Uncommonly, flowers may have no axis of symmetry at all, typically because their parts are spirall ...

, accompanied with scaly silver

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s bigger that themselves. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is an

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 ...

Habitat and distribution

They can be encountered all around the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. It grows in abandoned or dry terrains,

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

s and ditches, and flourishes from winter to summer.

Uses

It is used stewed, as a

diuretic A diuretic () is any substance that promotes diuresis, the increased production of urine. This includes forced diuresis. A diuretic tablet is sometimes colloquially called a water tablet. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics in ...

and blood purifier, and as a plaster to cure wounds.

Taxonomy

''Paronychia argentea'' was described by

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biologi ...

and published in ' 3: 230. 1778

779 __NOTOC__ Year 779 ( DCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 779 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Eur ...

;

Cytology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

Paronychia argentea (Fam.

) infraspecific number of

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

s and

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

: 2n=28 ;

Synonymy 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 ...

* ''Paronychia nitida''

Gaertn. Joseph Gaertner (12 March 1732 – 14 July 1791) was a German botanist, best known for his work on seeds, ''De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum'' (1788-1792). Biography He was born in Calw, and studied in Göttingen under Albrecht von Haller ...

1791 * ''Paronychia mauritanica'' (

Schult Schult is a German language, German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Art Schult (born June 20, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York) is a former Major League Baseball player. *Emil Schult (born 10 October 1946 in Dessau, Germany) is a German ...

.) Rothm. & Q.J.P.Silva 1939 * ''Paronychia italica'' (

Vill Vill is a term used in English history to describe the basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical ...

.) Schult. in Roem. & Schult. 1819 * ''Paronychia cuatrecasii'' Sennen 1929 * ''Paronychia carpetana'' Pau 1895 * ''Illecebrum mauritanicum'' Schult. in Roem. & Schult. 1819 * ''Illecebrum maritimum'' Vill. 1801 * ''Paronychia pubescens'' DC. in Lam. & DC. 1805 * ''Paronychia glomerata'' Moench 1794 * ''Chaetonychia paronychia'' (L.) Samp. * ''Ferriera mediterranea'' Bubani * ''Illecebrum argenteum'' Pourr. * ''Illecebrum italicum'' Vill. * ''Illecebrum narbonnense'' Vill. * ''Illecebrum paronychia'' L. * ''Plottzia paronychia'' (L.) Samp.''Paronychia argentea'' en PlantList
/ref>

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q627816 argentea Flora of Malta