Suaeda Torreyana

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''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 characteristic seen in various plant genera that thrive in salty habitats (halophile plants).

There are about 110 species in the genus ''Suaeda''.

The most common species in northwestern Europe is ''S. maritima''. It grows along the coasts, especially in saltmarsh areas, and is known in Britain as "common sea-blite", but as "herbaceous seepweed" in the USA. It is also common along the east coast of North America from Virginia northward. One of its varieties is common in tropical Asia on the land-side edge of mangrove tidal swamps. Another variety of this polymorphic species is common in tidal zones all around Australia (''Suaeda maritima var. australis'' is also classed as ''S. australis''). On the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea a common ''Suaeda'' species is ''S. vera''. This is known as "shrubby sea-blite" in English. It grows taller and forms a bush.

The name ''Suaeda'' comes from an oral (non-literary) Arabic name for the ''Suaeda vera'' species transliterated as ', ' or ', and it was assigned as the genus name by the 18th century taxonomist Peter Forsskål during his visit to the Red Sea area in the early 1760s. Forsskål's book, ''Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica'', published 1775, in Latin, declares ''Suæda'' as a newly created genus name, with the name taken from an Arabic name ''Suæd'' and presents the species members of the new genus.

The genus includes plants using either or carbon fixation. The latter pathway evolved independently three times in the genus and is now used by around 40 species. ''S. aralocaspica'', classified in its own section ''Borszczowia'', uses a particular type of photosynthesis without the typical "Kranz" leaf anatomy.

Uses

In the medieval and early post-medieval centuries it was harvested and burned, and the ashes were processed as a source for sodium carbonate for use in glass-making; see glasswort. In Mexico, some species such as ''Suaeda pulvinata'', called ''romeritos'', are cooked in traditional festive dish named either revoltijo or romeritos, also as other kinds of quelites a generic name for edible herbs part of the polyculture eco-agronomy technology called milpa.

Selected species

*''Suaeda aegyptiaca''
*''Suaeda aralocaspica'' – formerly known as ''Borszczowia aralocaspica''
*''Suaeda asphaltica'' – Asphaltic seablite
*''Suaeda australis'' – Austral seablite
*''Suaeda calceoliformis'' – Pursh seepweed, broom seepweed, horned seablite
*''Suaeda californica'' – California seablite
*''Suaeda conferta'' – beach seepweed
*''Suaeda corniculata''
*''Suaeda depressa'' – Alkaki seepweed
*''Suaeda esteroa'' – estuary seablite
*''Suaeda fruticosa''
*''Suaeda glauca''
*''Suaeda japonica''
*''Suaeda linearis'' – annual seepweed, narrow-leaf seablite
*''Suaeda maritima''
*''Suaeda mexicana'' – Mexican seepweed
*''Suaeda monoica''
*''Suaeda novae-zelandiae''
*''Suaeda nigra'' – bush seepweed, romerillo
*'' Suaeda occidentalis'' – western seepweed
*'' Suaeda palaestina''
*''Suaeda pulvinata''
*''Suaeda rolandii'' – Roland's seablite
*'' Suaeda salina''
*''Suaeda salsa''
*''Suaeda suffrutescens'' – desert seepweed
*''Suaeda tampicensis'' – coastal seepweed
*''Suaeda taxifolia'' – woolly seablite
*'' Suaeda torreyana'' – iodine weed
*''Suaeda vera''
*''Suaeda vermiculata''

References

USDA Plants Profile: genus ''Suaeda''GRIN genus ''Suaeda''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q159088

Halophytes
Amaranthaceae genera
Salt marsh plants
Taxa named by Peter Forsskål
Barilla plants