Description:

• Erect annual, biennial or perennial herbs, with furrowed, glabrous stems; roots woody, fleshy or much swollen
• Leaves alternate, large, broad, flat, entire or nearly so, long-petiolate
• Inflorescences simple or paniculate, with spike-like branches, composed of small, (1)2-4-flowered clusters, flowers of each cluster fused by their basally indurated perianth, whole cluster falling off at maturity, bracteate; bract 1, herbaceous, small to abortive; bracteoles 2
• Flowers bisexual, sessile
• Tepals 5, green or whitish, sometimes petaloid, basally indurated at fruiting time and often connate with other flowers in the glomerule, perigynous
• Stamens 5; filaments inserted on a glandular disc
• Ovary semi-inferior, connate with perianth tube at base, 3-carpellate, ± trigonous; stigmas 2-5, sessile, ovate, papillose on inner surface
• Fruit enclosed in perianths that are connate by their swollen bases to form a pseudocarp which becomes detached at maturity, opening by a lid (operculum); pericarp fleshy or hard
• Seed horizontal, lenticular or reniform, smooth or glossy; testa crustaceous; endosperm copious, central; embryo subannular
• x = 9 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• *Beta L.
  • Linnaeus: 222 (1753)
  • Linnaeus: 103 (1754)
  • Jussieu: 85 (1789)
  • Hooker: 52 (1880)
  • Volkens: 56 (1892)
  • Ulbrich: 457 (1934)
  • Aellen: 550 (1960)
  • Ball: 91 (1964)
  • Brenan: 91 (1964)
  • Zohary: 138 (1966)
  • Ford-Lloyd & Williams: 89 (1975)
  • Wilson: 277 (1984)
  • Kühn: 265 (1993)
  • Letschert: 31 (1993)
  • Hedge: 20 (1997)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species ± 12, mainly in the Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean regions
• Southern Africa: Cultivars derived from Beta vulgaris L. are food plants including Beetroot, Sugarbeet, Spinach Beet, etc.; some of these have escaped from cultivation, especially in Western Cape