''Suaeda aralocaspica'' is a species of plant in the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

that is restricted to the deserts of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. It is a

halophyte A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. T ...

and uses carbon fixation but lacks the characteristic leaf anatomy of other plants (known as

kranz anatomy carbon fixation or the Hatch–Slack pathway is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in plants. It owes the names to the 1960's discovery by Marshall Davidson Hatch and Charles Roger Slack that some plants, when suppl ...

). Carrying out complete C₄ photosynthesis within individual cells, these plants instead are known as single‐cell C4 system or SCC₄ plants. This makes them distinct from typical C₄ plants, which require the collaboration of two types of photosynthetic cells. SCC₄ plants have features that make them potentially valuable in engineering higher photosynthetic efficiencies in agriculturally important C₃ carbon fixation species such as rice. To address this, the 467 Mb genome of ''S. aralocaspica'' has been sequenced to help understanding of the evolution of SCC₄ photosynthesis and contribute to the engineering of C₄ photosynthesis into other economically important crops. It is

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 ...

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 ...

and grows to a height of between . It flowers in August, producing seeds of two different sizes that differ in their morphology, dormancy and germination characteristics. The species was formerly classified in its own genus ''Borszczowia'', which is now treated as section within genus ''

Suaeda __NOTOC__ ''Suaeda'' is a genus of plants also known as seepweeds and sea-blites. Most species are confined to saline or alkaline soil habitats, such as coastal salt-flats and tidal wetlands. Many species have thick, succulent leaves, a character ...

''.

References

aralocaspica Flora of Central Asia Barilla plants Taxa named by Alexander von Bunge {{Amaranthaceae-stub