Spinacia oleracea occidentalis

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Amaranthaceae

Herbs, clambering subshrubs , shrubs , or lianas. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, exstipulate . Flowers small, bisexual or unisexual , or sterile and reduced, subtended by 1 membranous bract and 2 bracteoles, solitary or aggregated in cymes. Inflorescences elongated or condensed spikes (heads ), racemes , or thyrsoid structures of varying complexity. Bracteoles membranous or scarious . Tepals 3-5, membranous, scarious or subleathery, 1-, 3-, 5-, or 7(-23) -veined. Stamens as many as tepals and opposite these, rarely fewer than tepals; filaments free , united into a cup at base or ± entirely into a tube , filament lobes present or absent, pseudostaminodes present or absent; anthers (1- or) 2-loculed, dorsifixed , introrsely dehiscent . Ovary superior, 1-loculed; ovules 1 to many; style persistent , short and indistinct or long and slender; stigma capitate, penicillate , 2-lobed or forming 2 filiform branches. Fruit a dry utricle or a fleshy capsule, indehiscent, irregularly bursting, or circumscissile. Seeds lenticular , reniform , subglobose, or shortly cylindric , smooth or verruculose .

About 70 genera and 900 species: worldwide; 15 genera (one introduced ) and 44 species (three endemic, 14 introduced) in China.

Morphology of the androecium, perianth (tepals), and the inflorescence has traditionally been used to circumscribe genera and tribes . Pseudostaminodia are interstaminal appendages with variously shaped apices. Filament appendages are the lateral appendages of filaments (one on each side) . The basic structure of the inflorescence is the cyme (branchlets arising from the bracteole axils, the bracteoles serving as bracts for upper flowers), which can be reduced to one flower with two bracteoles and a bract. Units of dispersal vary considerably (capsules opening with lower part persistent, flower and bracteoles falling together, or cymose partial inflorescences breaking off above bract) and can be characteristic for genera. Several genera possess long trichomes serving dispersal at the base of the tepals.[1]

Genus Spinacia

Herbs, annual or biennial, monoecious, glabrous . Stems erect , not branched, not jointed , not armed , not fleshy . Leaves basal or alternate, petiolate ; blade triangular-hastate to ovate , sometimes with elongated lobes , margins entire or dentate , apex acute. Inflorescences: pistillate flowers sessile in leaf axils ; staminate flowers in dense terminal spikes. Flowers unisexual , rarely bisexual ; staminate flowers with perianth segments 4-5, stamens 4-5; pistillate flowers enclosed by 2 accrescent or connate bracts, perianth absent, stigmas 4-5. Fruiting structures enlarged and hardened bracteoles enclosing achenes; pericarp adherent . Seeds vertical , seed coat dark, spiny or smooth ; hardened bracteoles serving as seed coat; embryo annular ; perisperm copious . x = 6.

Species 3: introduced ; Eurasia .

The chromosome base number of six is unusual in the Chenopodiaceae. B . L. Turner (1994b) suggested that members with a base of nine, the most common number in the family , may be derived.[2]

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Spinacia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 95 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

S. oleracea (Spinach) · S. oleracea '7-Green' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Amazon' (Spinach 'amazon') · S. oleracea 'America' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Andhalu' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Avenger' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Avon' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Bahamas' (Spinach 'bahamas') · S. oleracea 'Barbados' (Spinach 'barbados') · S. oleracea 'Bizet' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Blackbird' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Bloomsdale' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Bolero' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Bordeaux' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Bossanova' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Catalina' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Cherokee' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Correnta' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Cxf 94684' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Cypress' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Dolphin Rz' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Emilia' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Esa661070' (Spinach 'esa661070') · S. oleracea 'Esmeralda' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Falcon' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Fidalgo' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Fiorano' (Spinach 'fiorano') · S. oleracea 'Four Season' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Galaxy' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Giant Nobel' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Giant Winter' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Green Magic' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Hector' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Hellcat' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Industra' (Spinach 'industra') · S. oleracea 'Interceptor' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Lorelay' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Matador' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Melody' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Merlo Nero' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Mig' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Mikado' (Spinach 'mikado') · S. oleracea 'Missouri' (Spinach 'missouri') · S. oleracea 'Monstrueux De Viroflay' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Nadong' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Okame' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Olympia' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Orai - Alrite' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Oriental Giant' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Padre' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Palco' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Polka' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Polydane' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Razzle Dazzle' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Regiment' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Rhino' (Spinach 'rhino') · S. oleracea 'Ricco Di Asti' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Sais #7' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Samish' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Scarlet' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Scenic' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Seb661076' (Spinach 'seb661076') · S. oleracea 'Seychelles' (Spinach 'seychelles') · S. oleracea 'Skookum' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Sp870' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Space' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Spain' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Spinnaker' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Spinner' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Spokane' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Sporter' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Spring-Summer' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Springer' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Springfield' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Summer Perfection' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Tetona' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Tigercat' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Tirza' (Spinach 'tirza') · S. oleracea 'Tornado' (Spinach 'tornado') · S. oleracea 'Tyee' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Unipack 12' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Unipack 131' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Unipack 144' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Unipack 151' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Unipack 277' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Vancouver' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Van Gogh' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Verdi' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Viking' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Viroflay' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Vivos' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Whale' (Spinach) · S. oleracea 'Winter Bloomsdale' (Spinach) · S. sativus 'Seven R' (Spinach) · S. turkestanica (Wild Spinach)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Kuan Ke-chien. 1979. Amaranthaceae. In: Kung Hsien-wu & Tsien Cho-po, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 25(2): 194241.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.

Identifiers

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 2219529

Footnotes

1. Bojian Bao, Thomas Borsch & Steven E. Clemants "Amaranthaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 415. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Leila M. Shultz "Spinacia". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 260, 302. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.