Chenopodioideae
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The Chenopodioideae are a subfamily of the
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 t ...
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 i ...
in the
APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a fu ...
, which is largely based on molecular phylogeny, but were included - together with other subfamilies - in family Chenopodiaceae in the Cronquist system. Food species comprise
Spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed either f ...
(''Spinacia oleracea''), Good King Henry (''Blitum bonus-henricus''), several '' Chenopodium'' species (
Quinoa Quinoa (''Chenopodium quinoa''; , from Quechua ' or ') is a flowering plant in the amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are rich in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, ...
,
Kañiwa ''Chenopodium pallidicaule'', known as ''cañihua'', ''canihua'' or ''cañahua'' (from Quechua ''qañiwa, qañawa or qañawi'') and also kaniwa, is a species of goosefoot, similar in character and uses to the closely related ''quinoa'' ''(Chenopo ...
, Fat Hen),
Orache ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and w ...
(''Atriplex spp.''), and Epazote (''Dysphania ambrosioides''). The name is Greek for goosefoot, the common name of a genus of plants having small greenish flowers.


Description

The Chenopodioideae are annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs, shrub or small trees. The leaves are usually alternate and flat. The flowers are often unisexual. Many species are
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 ...
or have mixed inflorescences of bisexual and unisexual flowers. Some species are dioecious, like ''
Spinacia ''Spinacia'' is a flowering plant genus in the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae. The most common member is spinach. Description The species in genus ''Spinacia'' are annual or biennial herbs. Plants are always glabrous. Th ...
'', '' Grayia'', '' Exomis'', and ''
Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and ...
''. In several species of tribe Atripliceae, the female flowers are without perianth, but enclosed by two bracts. The species with a perianth have up to five
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. The seed is horizontal or vertical, with annular or horseshoe-shaped embryo.


Distribution

The subfamily Chenopodioideae is distributed worldwide, but originates from
Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...
.


Systematics

The genera of this subfamily were formerly classified in family Chenopodiaceae in the Cronquist system. According to Fuentes-Bazan et al. (2012) and based on molecular genetic research, the subfamily comprises 4 tribes and includes about 26 genera: * Tribus Anserineae Dumort. (Syn. Spinacieae), with 2 genera: ** ''
Spinacia ''Spinacia'' is a flowering plant genus in the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae. The most common member is spinach. Description The species in genus ''Spinacia'' are annual or biennial herbs. Plants are always glabrous. Th ...
'' L.: with 3 species in Western Asia and North Africa: ***
Spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed either f ...
(''Spinacia oleracea'') ** '' Blitum'', with 12 species nearly worldwide, for example: *** '' Blitum capitatum'' - Strawberry Blite (Syn. ''Chenopodium capitatum'') *** ''
Blitum bonus-henricus ''Blitum bonus-henricus'' ( syn. ''Chenopodium bonus-henricus''), also called Good-King-Henry, poor-man's asparagus, perennial goosefoot, Lincolnshire spinach, Markery, English mercury, or mercury goosefoot, is a species of goosefoot which is na ...
'' - Good king henry (Syn. ''Chenopodium bonus-henricus'') *** '' Blitum virgatum'' - leafy goosefoot (Syn. ''Chenopodium foliosum'') * Tribus
Atripliceae Atripliceae are a tribe of the subfamily Chenopodioideae belonging to the plant family Amaranthaceae. ''Atriplex'' is the largest genus of the tribe. Species of Atripiceae are ecologically important in steppe and semi-desert climates. Distribut ...
C. A. Mey. (Syn. Chenopodieae Dumort.): Fuentes-Bazan et al. (2012) include here also ''Chenopodium'' and related genera, as ''Chenopodiastrum'', ''Lipandra'' and ''Oxybasis''. **'' Archiatriplex'' G.L.Chu, with only one species: ***''Archiatriplex nanpinensis'' G.L.Chu: endemitic in the Chinese province Sichuan. ** ''
Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and ...
'' L. - saltbush, orache (Syn.: ''Blackiella, Cremnophyton, Haloxanthium, Neopreissia, Obione, Pachypharynx, Senniella, Theleophyton''), with about 300 species worldwide ** '' Baolia'' H.W.Kung & G.L.Chu, with only one species: *** ''Baolia bracteata'' H.W.Kung & G.L.Chu, endemitic in the Chinese province Gansu. ** '' Chenopodiastrum'' S. Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch: with 5 species, for example: *** '' Chenopodiastrum hybridum'' (L.) S. Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch (Syn. ''Chenopodium hybridum'' L.) *** ''
Chenopodiastrum murale ''Chenopodiastrum murale'', (Syn. ''Chenopodium murale'') is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common names nettle-leaved goosefoot, Australian-spinach, salt-green, and sowbane. This plant is native to Europe and parts o ...
'' (L.) S. Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch - Sowbane, nettle-leaf goosefoot (Syn. ''Chenopodium murale'' L.) *** '' Chenopodiastrum simplex'' (Torrey) S.Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch - Maple-leaf goosefoot (Syn.: ''Chenopodium simplex'' (Torrey) Raf.) ** '' Chenopodium'' L. - goosefoot (''
sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...
'', incl. ''Einadia'' Raf. and ''Rhagodia'' R.Br.): with about 90 species worldwide. ** '' Exomis'' Fenzl ex Moq., with only one species: *** ''Exomis microphylla'' (Thunb.) Aellen: a subshrub in southern and western Africa growing in gardens and hedges. ** '' Extriplex'' E.H.Zacharias, with 2 species in western North America: *** '' Extriplex californica'' (Moq.) E.H.Zacharias - California saltbush, California orache (Syn.: ''Atriplex californica'' Moq.) *** '' Extriplex joaquinana'' (A.Nelson) E.H.Zacharias - San Joaquin saltbush, San Joaquin orach (Syn.: ''Atriplex joaquinana'' A.Nelson) ** '' Grayia'' Hook. & Arn. - siltbush, hopsage (Syn. ''Zuckia'' Standl.), with 4 shrubby species in western North America, for example: *** ''
Grayia spinosa ''Grayia'' may refer to: * ''Grayia'' (snake), a genus of African water snakes * ''Grayia'' (plant), a genus of desert shrubs in the family Amaranthaceae {{Genus disambiguation ...
'' (Hook.) Moq. - spiny hopsage ** ''
Halimione ''Halimione'' is a plant genus from the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae. It is a sister genus of ''Atriplex'' and is included in that genus by Plants of the World Online. Description The species in genus ''Halimione'' are ...
'' Aellen - purslane, with 3 species in Europe and Western Asia, for example: *** '' Halimione portulacoides'' (L.) Aellen (Syn.: ''Atriplex portulacoides'' L.) - sea purslane ** ''
Holmbergia ''Holmbergia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to 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 t ...
'' Hicken, with only one species: *** ''Holmbergia tweedii'' (Moq.) Speg., a shrub in Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. ** ''
Lipandra ''Lipandra polysperma'' (Syn. ''Chenopodium polyspermum''), common name manyseed goosefoot, is the only species of the monotypic plant genus ''Lipandra'' from the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae. Description ''Lipandra ...
'' Moq.: with only one species: *** ''Lipandra polysperma'' (L.) S. Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch (Syn. ''Chenopodium polyspermum'' L.) - many-seed goosefoot ** '' Manochlamys'' Aellen, with only one species: *** ''Manochlamys albicans'' Aellen: a subshrub in southern Africa, Namibia and Cape province, growing on rocky and sandy slopes, sand dunes and road sides. ** '' Microgynoecium'' Hook.f., with only one species: *** ''Microgynoecium tibeticum'' Hook.f.: in Tibet and Sikkim, growing in alpine meadows and on disturbed sites. ** '' Micromonolepis'' Ulbr., with only one species: *** ''Micromonolepis pusilla'' (Torr. ex S. Watson) Ulbr. - small povertyweed, in western North America ** '' Oxybasis'' Kar. & Kir.: with 5 species, for example: *** '' Oxybasis chenopodioides'' (L.) S. Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch - low goosefoot (Syn. ''Chenopodium chenopodioides'' (L.) Aellen) *** ''
Oxybasis glauca ''Oxybasis glauca'' (syn. ''Chenopodium glaucum''), common name oak-leaved goosefoot, is a species of goosefoot plant native to Europe. It has been introduced and become an invasive weed in North America. This invader of European origin also appe ...
'' (L.) S. Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch - Oak-leaved goosefoot (Syn. ''Chenopodium glaucum'' L.) *** '' Oxybasis rubra'' (L.) S. Fuentes, Uotila & Borsch - Red Goosefoot (Syn. ''Chenopodium rubrum'' L.) ** ''
Proatriplex ''Proatriplex'' is a monotypic plant genus in the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae, with the only species ''Proatriplex pleiantha'' (syn. ''Atriplex pleiantha''). It is known by the common names four-corners orach and Mancos s ...
'' (W.A.Weber) Stutz & G.L.Chu, with only one species: *** ''Proatriplex pleiantha'' (W.A.Weber) Stutz & G.L.Chu, an annual herb from western North America. ** '' Stutzia'' E.H.Zacharias (Syn. ''Endolepis'' Torr.), with 2 annual species in western North America: *** '' Stutzia covillei'' (Standl.) E.H.Zacharias (Syn. ''Atriplex covillei'' (Standl.) J. F. Macbr., ''Endolepis covillei'' Standl) *** '' Stutzia dioica'' (Nutt.) E.H.Zacharias (Syn. ''Atriplex suckleyi'' (Torrey) Rydberg, ''Endolepis suckleyi'' Torr.) * Tribus Axyrideae (Heklau) G. Kadereit & A. Sukhor., with dendritic trichomes. 3 genera: ** '' Axyris'' L., with about 6 species Central Asia, Himalaya and western China, for example: *** '' Axyris amaranthoides'' L.- Russian pigweed, upright axyris ** '' Ceratocarpus'' L., with 2 species in Europe and West Asia ** '' Krascheninnikovia'' Gueldenst., with 8 species in Eurasia and North America, for example: *** '' Krascheninnikovia lanata'' (Pursh) A.Meeuse & A.Smit - winterfat * Tribus Dysphanieae: ** ''
Cycloloma ''Cycloloma'' is a monotypic genus which contains the sole species ''Cycloloma atriplicifolium'', which is known by the common names winged pigweed, tumble ringwing, plains tumbleweed, and tumble-weed. page 16 This plant is native to central No ...
'' Moq. (Syn.: Cyclolepis Moquin-Tandon) with only one species: *** ''Cycloloma atriplicifolium'' (Sprengel) J.M.Coulter: widespread in Canada, USA and northern Mexico ** '' Dysphania'' R.Br., with about 42 species worldwide, for example: *** ''
Dysphania ambrosioides ''Dysphania ambrosioides'', formerly ''Chenopodium ambrosioides'', known as Jesuit's tea, Mexican-tea, ''payqu'' ''(paico)'', ''epazote'', ''mastruz'', or ''herba sanctæ Mariæ'', is an annual or short-lived perennial herb native to Central ...
'' - epazote *** '' Dysphania anthelmintica'' - wormseed ** '' Suckleya'' A.Gray, with only one species: *** ''Suckleya suckleyana'' (Torr.) Rydb., a succulent annual from western North America. ** '' Teloxys'' Moq.: with only one species: *** ''Teloxys aristata'' (L.) Moq. (Syn.: ''Chenopodium aristatum'' L., ''Dysphania aristata''): from Eastern Europe to temperate Asia, naturalized elsewhere.


Fossil record

The oldest
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
records for Chenopodioideae are pollen grains recovered from
Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the inte ...
sediments of the
Edmonton Formation Within the earth science of geology, the Edmonton Group is a Late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) to early Paleocene stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the central Alberta plains. It was first described as the Edmonton For ...
in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
.Assorted angiosperm pollen from the Edmonton Formation (Maestrichtian), Alberta, Canada by Satish K. Srivastava – Canadian Journal of Botany, 1969, 47(6): 975-989, https://doi.org/10.1139/b69-138


References

* Susy Fuentes-Bazan, Pertti Uotila, Thomas Borsch (2012): ''A novel phylogeny-based generic classification for Chenopodium sensu lato, and a tribal rearrangement of Chenopodioideae (Chenopodiaceae).'' In: ''Willdenowia.'' Vol. 42, No. 1, p. 5-24. * Gudrun Kadereit, Evgeny V. Mavrodiev, Elizabeth H. Zacharias & Alexander P. Sukhorukov: ''Molecular phylogeny of Atripliceae (Chenopodioideae, Chenopodiaceae) (2010): Implications for systematics, biogeography, flower and fruit evolution, and the origin of C4 Photosynthesis''. - In: ''American Journal of Botany'' 97(10): p. 1664-1687. (chapters description, distribution and systematics) * A.P. Sukhorukov, M. Zhang (2013): Fruit and seed Anatomy of Chenopodium and related genera (Chenopodioideae, Chenopodiaceae/Amaranthaceae): Implications for evolution and taxonomy. - PLOS ONE. Vol. 8, № 4. e61906. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.006190
online
Susy Fuentes-Bazan, Guilhem Mansion, Thomas Borsch: ''Towards a species level tree of the globally diverse genus Chenopodium (Chenopodiaceae)''. In: ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'', online 22 October 2011, ISSN 1055-7903

Elizabeth H. Zacharias, Bruce G. Baldwin (2010): ''A Molecular Phylogeny of North American Atripliceae (Chenopodiaceae), with Implications for Floral and Photosynthetic Pathway Evolution''. In: ''Systematic Botany'' 35(4), p.839-857.


External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1070132 Chenopodioideae, Caryophyllales subfamilies