Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae Juss. (1789)
Cosmopolitan family including herbs, shrubs, and vines adapted to a wide variety of habitats, from deserts to tropical forests. Formerly included the Chenopodiaceae. Comprises genera of great economic and medicinal importance in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Species display dense spike or panicle inflorescences, small flowers, and adaptations to disturbed or saline soils.
Achyranthes
Achyranthes
Genus of herbs and subshrubs in the Amaranthaceae family distributed across tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Pacific islands. Distinguished by stems with thickened nodes, opposite leaves, and terminal spikes with small flowers subtended by reflexed, spiny bracts at maturity. Several species are widely used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese herbalism.
Kali
Kali
Small genus of halophytic and xerophytic succulent plants in the family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Salsoloideae. Formerly included within Salsola, Kali was segregated based on modern molecular analyses. Comprises annual or perennial herbs with fleshy cylindrical stems and succulent leaves adapted to saline soils and semi-arid environments. Produces small flowers with spiny bracts in many species.
Salicornia
Salicornia
Genus of halophytic succulent plants in the family Amaranthaceae (subfamily Salicornioideae). Commonly known as glassworts or samphire, they are herbaceous or suffrutescent plants with jointed, fleshy stems ranging from green to red-purple, and leaves reduced to tiny scales fused to the stem and invisible to the naked eye. This peculiar modular design allows them to colonise salt marshes, coastal salt pans and saline deserts where no other vascular plant thrives. They have an extraordinary tolerance to salinity (up to 6% NaCl), accumulate salt in their succulent tissues and excrete it to regulate osmotic pressure. Several species are edible and marketed as "sea asparagus" in gourmet outlets. Some South American species (S. peruviana, S. corticosa) grow in the salt flats of the Atacama Desert, being among the few vascular plants that survive in those extreme environments.
Sarcocornia
Sarcocornia
Genus of succulent halophytes in the family Amaranthaceae, related to Salicornia. Plants with jointed, fleshy stems adapted to salt marshes, saline beaches and high-salinity soils in coastal and Andean regions of South America, Europe and Africa. Important carbon fixers in saline ecosystems with potential as halophyte crops.
Soda
Soda
Genus of halophytic plants in the family Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae), adapted to saline and arid soils.