Suaeda


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.
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 US. 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. 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 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 C3 carbon fixation| or C4 carbon fixation| 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 suaeda 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 a traditional festive dish called either revoltijo or romeritos. It is also eaten as wild greens, or as edible herbs grown as part of the crop-growing system called milpa.

Species

93 species are accepted. Division into sections per Kapralov & Akhani.

Subgenus ''Brezia''

*
  • Suaeda heterophylla
  • Suaeda kossinskyi
  • Suaeda maritima
  • Suaeda occidentalis – western seepweed
  • Suaeda pannonica
  • Suaeda patagonica
  • Suaeda prostrata
  • Suaeda spicata
  • ''Suaeda tschujensis''

    Subgenus ''Suaeda''

Section ''Alexandra''

  • ''Suaeda lehmannii''

    Section ''Borszczowia''

  • Suaeda aralocaspica – formerly known as ''Borszczowia aralocaspica''

    Section ''Salsina''

  • Suaeda altissima
  • Suaeda arcuata
  • Suaeda aegyptiaca
  • Suaeda articulata
  • Suaeda asphaltica – Asphaltic seablite
  • Suaeda dendroides
  • Suaeda divaricata
  • Suaeda foliosa
  • Suaeda fruticosa
  • Suaeda microphylla
  • Suaeda monoica
*
  • Suaeda taxifolia – woolly seablite
  • ''Suaeda vermiculata''

    Section ''Schanginia''

  • Suaeda linifolia
  • ''Suaeda paradoxa''

    Section ''Schoberia''

  • Suaeda acuminata
  • Suaeda carnosissima
  • Suaeda cucullata
  • Suaeda eltonica
  • Suaeda microsperma
  • ''Suaeda splendens''

    Section ''Suaeda''

  • Suaeda vera
  • "S. ekimii"

    Section ''Physophora''

  • Suaeda ifniensis
  • Suaeda palaestina
  • ''Suaeda physophora''

    Unsorted

  • Suaeda anatolica
  • Suaeda arbusculoides
  • Suaeda arctica
  • Suaeda argentinensis
  • Suaeda arguinensis
  • Suaeda braun-blanquetii
  • Suaeda caboverdeana
  • Suaeda caespitosa
  • Suaeda californica – California seablite
  • Suaeda conferta – beach seepweed
  • Suaeda densiflora
  • Suaeda edulis
  • Suaeda esteroa – estuary seablite
  • Suaeda × genesiana
  • Suaeda glauca
  • Suaeda inflata
  • Suaeda iranshahrii
  • Suaeda jacoensis
  • Suaeda japonica
  • Suaeda khalijefarsica
  • Suaeda kocheri
  • Suaeda kulundensis
  • Suaeda linearis – annual seepweed, narrow-leaf seablite
  • Suaeda malacosperma
  • Suaeda merxmuelleri
  • Suaeda mexicana – Mexican seepweed
  • Suaeda micromeris
  • Suaeda monodiana
  • Suaeda moschata
  • Suaeda multiflora
  • Suaeda nesophila
  • Suaeda neuquenensis
  • Suaeda nigra – bush seepweed, romerillo
  • Suaeda nigrescens
  • Suaeda novae-zelandiae
  • Suaeda nudiflora
  • Suaeda olufsenii
  • Suaeda palmeri
  • Suaeda pelagica
  • Suaeda plumosa
  • Suaeda pruinosa
  • Suaeda pterantha
  • Suaeda puertopenascoa
  • Suaeda pulvinata
  • Suaeda rigida
  • Suaeda rolandii – Roland's seablite
  • Suaeda salina
  • Suaeda salsa
  • Suaeda scabra
  • Suaeda sibirica
  • Suaeda stellatiflora
  • Suaeda tampicensis – coastal seepweed
  • Suaeda turgida
  • Suaeda turkestanica
  • ''Suaeda tuvinica''

    Phylogeny

Abbreviated view of Kapralov & Akhani, figure 3. Maximum likelihood, combined complete ITS, atpB-rbcL, and psbB-psbH.