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Salsola giessii

Interesting Facts

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Description

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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 Salsola

Herbs, annual , or subshrubs [shrubs and small trees ], glabrous , or ± pubescent or hispid . Stems erect , ascending , or prostrate , branched (rarely simple ), not jointed , not armed , not fleshy . Leaves mostly alternate (rarely opposite, especially proximal ones), sessile; blade lanceolate, linear , or filiform to subulate , semiterete, margins entire basally, apex obtuse , soft and subspinescent or narrowed to spine or soft bristle . Inflorescences spicate , flowers solitary in axils of bracts or reduced distal leaves (rarely 2-3-flowered with lateral flowers poorly developed) ; bracts ovate-lanceolate, spine-tipped. Flowers bisexual , with 2 bracteoles; perianth segments persistent , 5, covering utricle at maturity, often developing transverse , dorsal, membranous or ± coriaceous wing (sometimes only 2-3 segments winged , sometimes wingless or nearly so) ; stamens 5; styles and stigmas 2 (or 3). Fruits utricles, covered by perianth segments at maturity; pericarp adherent . Seeds usually horizontal, orbicular ; seed coat black or brown; perisperm absent. x = 9.

Species ca. 130: introduced ; almost worldwide, Mediterranean region, arid and coastal zones of Eurasia ; n, e, s Africa.

In this treatment, a rather broad and traditional generic concept is accepted for Salsola, including Caroxylon and other segregate genera. It is evident that Salsola in the traditional sense should be regarded as a group of genera rather than a natural monophyletic genus. V. I. Pyankov et al. (2001) recently discussed phylogenetic relationships inferred from parsimony analysis of nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) of the 18S-26S nuclear ribosomal DNA of 34 species of Salsola and related genera (Halothamnus Jaubert & Spach, Climacoptera Botschantzev, Girgensohnia Bunge, Halocharis Moquin-Tandon, and Haloxylon Bunge) and four species from representative outgroups (tribes Camphorosmeae and Atripliceae). The study confirmed that Salsola sensu lato is polyphyletic, with several currently recognized related genera rooted within the group. Results of the V. I. Pyankov et al. study also contradict V. P. Botschantzev€™s (1969) hypothesis of a South African origin of Salsola sensu lato and place the "cradle" of the genus in central Asia. A comparative taxonomic and phytogeographic analysis (S. L. Mosyakin 2002) also suggests the place of origin of the Salsola generic aggregate is somewhere in the Tethyan region of south-central Asia (probably northern coasts of the ancient Tethys, or adjacent inland lacustrine habitats). Almost all North American taxa belong to Salsola sensu stricto . Species of Salsola sect. Caroxylon (Thunberg) Fenzl, which is represented in North America only by the introduced S. vermiculata, may be recognized in the distinct genus Caroxylon Thunberg following a comprehensive study of the group worldwide.[2]

Taxonomy

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Similar Species

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Members of the genus Salsola

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 12 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

S. collina (Russian Thistle) · S. kali kali (Prickly Russian Thistle) · S. kali pontica (Russian Thistle) · S. kali subsp. pontica (Russian Thistle) · S. komarovi (Salt-Wort) · S. komarovii (Japanese Saltwort) · S. oppositifolia (Salsola) · S. paulsenii (Barbwire Russian Thistle) · S. scoparia (Mexican Burningbush) · S. soda (Oppositeleaf Russian Thistle) · S. tragus (Common Russian Thistle) · S. vermiculata (Damascus Saltwort)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

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. Sergei L. Mosyakin "Salsola". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 260, 261, 340, 351,. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-27