Annual herbs, erect or decumbent, sometimes becoming thinly woody below, glabrous, appearing leafless, built up of many superposed, ± tubular-segments which are green to reddish and succulent, and ultimately shrivel, each segment at apex forming a little cup, with 2 short teeth, embracing base of next higher segment; branches opposite, articulated
Leaves
much reduced, opposite, consisting of small connate scales
Inflorescences
short or long, terminal and lateral, fleshy, cylindrical spikes; spike not disarticulating, persistent or breaking up irregularly
Flowers
minute, bisexual, or occasionally a few unisexual, usually in clusters of 3, ± connate, a pair of clusters to each fertile segment, clusters on opposite sides and immersed in hollows at articulations of branches
Perianth
angular, minutely 3- or 4-lobed, fleshy, opening in middle of a truncate flattened lateral shield, lobes hard and spongy in fruit, persistent
Stamens
1 or 2 per flower; thecae exserted, nonappendiculate
Ovary
ovoid, vertical, narrowed to apex; ovule subsessile; style lacerated at apex
Fruit
an utricle, ovoid or oblong in outline, enclosed in spongy perianth; pericarp membranous
KÜHN, U. 1993.
Chenopodiaceae
. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich,
The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons
2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1754.
Genera plantarum
, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
MOQUIN-TANDON, C.H.B.A. 1840.
Chenopodearum monographica enumeratio
. P.-J. Loss, Paris
MOSS, C.E. 1954. The species of
Arthrocnemum
and
Salicornia
in southern Africa.
Journal of South African Botany
20
O'CALLAGHAN, M. 1992. The ecology and identification of the southern African
Salicornieae
(
Chenopodiaceae
).
South African Journal of Botany
58
TÖLKEN, H.R. 1967. The species of
Arthrocnemum
and
Salicornia
(
Chenopodiaceae
) in South Africa.
Bothalia
9
VOLKENS, G. 1892.
Chenopodiaceae
.
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien
3,1a
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