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Honckenya parva

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Caryophyllaceae

Herbs annual or perennial , rarely subshrubs or shrubs . Stems and branches usually swollen at nodes. Leaves opposite, decussate, rarely alternate or verticillate , simple , entire, usually connate at base ; stipules scarious , bristly , or often absent. Inflorescence of cymes or cymose panicles, rarely flowers solitary or few in racemes , capitula, pseudoverticillasters, or umbels. Flowers actinomorphic , bisexual , rarely unisexual , occasionally cleistogamous . Sepals (4 or) 5, free , imbricate, or connate into a tube , leaflike or scarious, persistent , sometimes bracteate below calyx. Petals (4 or) 5, rarely absent, free, often comprising claw and limb; limb entire or split, usually with coronal scales at juncture of claw and limb. Stamens (2--) 5--10, in 1 or 2 series. Pistil 1; carpels 2--5, united into a compound ovary. Ovary superior, 1-loculed or basally imperfectly 2--5-loculed. Gynophore present or absent. Placentation free, central, rarely basal; ovules (1 or) few or numerous , campylotropous. Styles (1 or) 2--5, sometimes united at base. Fruit usually a capsule, with pericarp crustaceous , scarious, or papery , dehiscing by teeth or valves 1 or 2 × as many as styles, rarely berrylike with irregular dehiscence or an achene. Seeds 1 to numerous, reniform , ovoid , or rarely dorsiventrally compressed , abaxially grooved , blunt , or sharply pointed , rarely fimbriate-pectinate; testa granular , striate or tuberculate , rarely smooth or spongy ; embryo strongly curved and surrounding perisperm or straight but eccentric ; perisperm mealy.

Between 75 and 80 genera and ca. 2000 species: widespread but mainly of temperate or warm-temperate occurrence in the N hemisphere, with principal centers of distribution in the Mediterranean region and W Asia to W China and the Himalayas, fewer species in Africa S of the Sahara, America, and Oceania; 30 genera (two endemic) and 390 species (193 endemic) in China.

Arenaria, Silene, and Stellaria contain over half the species in the family in China. They are mostly concentrated in the Qinghai-Xizang plateau , and are especially rich from the Hengduan Mountains to the Himalayas. The main uses of this family are medicinal and ornamental . Dianthus superbus, Pseudostellaria heterophylla, Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata, and Vaccaria hispanica are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine . Some species of Arenaria, Dianthus, Gypsophila, Psammosilene, and Silene are used as medicinal herbs among the people or are habitually used in local Chinese medicine. Many species of Dianthus, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Saponaria, and Silene are grown as ornamentals. Atocion armeria (Linnaeus) Rafinesque ( Silene armeria Linnaeus), native to Russia and Europe, is also cultivated in China. It differs from Silene in having a corymbose inflorescence and obscure calyx veins. Wu Cheng-yih, Ke Ping, Zhou Li-hua, Tang Chang-lin & Lu De-quan. 1996. Caryophyllaceae. In: Tang Chang-lin, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 26: 47–449.[1]

Genus Honckenya

Herbs, perennial , forming large mats or clumps by leafy rhizomes; rhizomes fleshy , often with prominent nodal buds and small membranous leaves. Taproots slender. Stems prostrate to decumbent , flowering stems ascending or weakly erect , simple or branched, terete or weakly 4-angled. Leaves not basally connate , sessile; blade 1-veined or obscurely so, usually elliptic to ovate , less commonly lanceolate to oblanceolate , obovate , or broadly elliptic, succulent, apex acute to acuminate or apiculate . Inflorescences terminal , open, leafy, 1-6-flowered cymes or axillary and flowers solitary; bracts paired , foliaceous . Pedicels erect. Flowers functionally unisexual or, occasionally, staminate plants also with some bisexual ; perianth and androecium subperigynous; hypanthium minimal; sepals 5(-6), distinct , green, narrowly ovate to elliptic, 3.5-7 mm, herbaceous, margins pale , scarious , apex obtuse or acute to apiculate, not hooded ; petals absent or 5(-6), white, base clawed, blade apex emarginate ; nectaries at base of filaments opposite sepals enlarged on both sides of filament, slightly reduced in pistillate flowers; stamens 10, fertile in staminate flowers , fewer or abortive in pistillate flowers, arising from rim of very brief hypanthium disc; filaments distinct; staminodes absent; styles (2-) 3-5(-6), filiform , 1-2 mm, shorter and erect in staminate flowers, glabrous proximally; stigmas (2-) 3-5(-6), linear along adaxial surface of styles, minutely papillate (30×). Capsules globose , inflated , opening by 3 spreading valves ; carpophore absent. Seeds 3-15, reddish brown to dark reddish or yellowish brown, narrowly to broadly obovate, laterally compressed , smooth to minutely papillate, marginal wing absent, appendage absent. x = 15.

Species 1: temperate and arctic North America, n Eurasia .

The resemblance in habit between Honckenya and Wilhelmsia previously presumed to represent convergence has proven to indicate a close relationship based on recent molecular studies (M. Nepokroeff et al. , unpubl.).[2]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : K .Schum. Publication : Bot. Jahrb. Syst. xv. (1893) 115.

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Honckenya

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 6 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

H. peploides (Seabeach Sandwort) · H. peploides diffusa (Seaside Sandplant) · H. peploides major (Seaside Sandplant) · H. peploides robusta (Sea-Chickweed) · H. peploides subsp. major (Seaside Sandplant) · H. peploides subsp. robusta (Seaside Sandplant)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Dequan Lu, Zhengyi Wu, Lihua Zhou, Shilong Chen, Michael G. Gilbert, Magnus Lidén, John McNeill, John K. Morton, Bengt Oxelman, Richard K. Rabeler, Mats Thulin, Nicholas J. Turland & Warren L. Wagner "Caryophyllaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 6 Page 1. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Warren L. Wagner "Honckenya". in Flora of North America Vol. 5. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/22/2012