Aizoaceae

Aizoaceae
Sesuvium portulacastrum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Aizoaceae Martynov
Genera
See text

The Family Aizoaceae or Ficoidaceae (fig-marigold family or ice plant family) is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1900 species. They are commonly known as stone plants or carpet weeds. Species that resemble stones or pebbles are sometimes called mesembs. Several species are known as ice plant.

Description

The family is widely recognised by taxonomists, although once it went by the botanical name "Ficoideae", now disallowed. The APG II system of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system of 1998) also recognises the family, and assigns it to the order Caryophyllales in the clade core eudicots. The APG II system also classes the former families Mesembryanthemaceae Fenzl (1836) , Sesuviaceae Horan. (1834) and Tetragoniaceae Link (1831) under the family Aizoaceae.

Most species (96 %, 1782 species in 132 genera) in this family are endemic to arid or semi-arid parts of southern Africa ^[1], but a few are from Australia and the Central Pacific. Most of these species are succulents and belong to the subfamilies Mesembryanthemoideae and Ruschioideae and are loosely termed mesems or mesembs.

Most fig-marigolds are herbaceous, rarely somewhat woody, with stems growing either erect or prostrate. Leaves are simple, opposite or alternate, and more or less succulent with entire (or rarely toothed) margins. Flowers are perfect in most species (but unisexual in some), actinomorphic, and appear singularly or in few-flowered cymes developing from the leaf axils. Sepals are typically 5 (3-8) and more or less connate (fused) below. True petals are absent. However, some species have numerous linear petals derived from staminoides. The fruit is a capsule with one to numerous seeds per cell.

A few species (especially Carpobrotus edulis, commonly called Ice Plant) have been widely introduced and become invasive.

Uses

Several Aizoaceae are edible, including:

• Carpobrotus edulis and Mesembryanthemum crystallinum have edible leaves, and are both commonly called Ice plant
• A species known as New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) is grown as a garden plant in somewhat dry climates and used as an alternative to spinach in upscale salads.

Carpobrotus edulis was introduced to California to stabilize soil along railroad tracks.

Subfamilies

• Aizooideae
• Sesuvioideae
• Tetragonioideae
• Mesembryanthemoideae
• Ruschioideae

Genera

Aptenia cordifolia or Rock Rose

Ice Plant (Carpobrotus edulis)

Jensenobotrya lossowiana

Drosanthemum speciosum

Cephalophyllum spec.

Odontophorus angustifolius Richtersveld N.P.

Footnote

References and external links

• Bittrich V. H. E. K. Hartmann (1988). "The Aizoaceae — a new approach". Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 97: 239–254. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1988.tb01581.x. 
• Cornelia Klak, Angeline Khunou, Gail Reeves and Terry Hedderson (2003). "A phylogenetic hypothesis for the Aizoaceae (Caryophyllales) based on four plastid DNA regions". Amer. J. Bot. 90: 1433–1445. doi:10.3732/ajb.90.10.1433.  - on line here
• Aizoaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants
• NCBI Taxonomy Browser
• P. Chesselet (2004 onwards). Interactive Mesembs2
• Aizoaceae of South Africa
• Family Aizoaceae Flowers in Israel

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