Spinach (genus)

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spinach
Real spinach (Spinacia oleracea)

Real spinach ( Spinacia oleracea )

Systematics
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Foxtail family (Amaranthaceae)
Subfamily : Chenopodioideae
Tribe : Anserineae
Genre : spinach
Scientific name
Spinacia
L.

Spinach ( Spinacia ) is a genus of plants from the foxtail family (Amaranthaceae). The best-known representative is the real spinach ( Spinacia oleracea ) used as a vegetable .

description

Vegetative characteristics

Spinach species are annual or biennial herbaceous plants , the summer or winter annuell can be. Their surface is bare, seldom scattered floury when young. The upright stem is not or only weakly branched.

The stalked, initially rosette, green leaves are arranged alternately on the stem, in female plants up to the stem tip, in male plants predominantly basal. Their flat leaf blade is triangular-ovate to spear-shaped with a smooth, toothed or arched lobed edge. In male plants, the leaf margin is often less lobed than in female plants.

Inflorescence and flower

Inflorescence with male flowers ( Spinacia oleracea )
Section of an inflorescence with female flowers ( Spinacia oleracea )

The spinach species are dioecious separately sexed ( diocyte ) (only in exceptional cases monoecious ). Male flowers are clumped in interrupted pseudo-annual partial inflorescences and form a terminal entire inflorescence . They have a flower cover of four to five green, elongated, skin-rimmed tepals and four to five stamens with hair-like stamens and protruding anthers.

The female flowers are in axillary clustered inflorescences. They are surrounded by two to four interconnected and perennial bracts , a flower cover is missing. (Some authors interpret the prophylls as a flower cover. The anatomy of the prophylls is more complex than that of the report ( Atriplex ).) The upper ovary bears four to five long, thread-like stigmas. (Hermaphrodite flowers are also very rare.)

Fruit and seeds

At the time of fruiting, the enlarged pre-leaves grow together and harden and enclose the fruit. They often develop teeth on the edge. Several flowers can also grow together and form thorny or horned collective fruits. The membranous pericarp adheres tightly to the upright seed. The ring-shaped embryo surrounds the abundant, floury nutrient tissue.

Chromosome number

The basic chromosome number is x = 6. This is an unusual number within the Chenopodioideae, which otherwise usually have a base number of x = 9.

Photosynthetic pathway

The spinach species are C 3 plants with normal leaf anatomy .

ecology

The species and varieties of the genus Spinach ( Spinacia ) are used as food by the caterpillars of numerous species of butterflies . In the HOSTS database is done with 63 items, such as fall webworm ( Hyphantria cunea ), the tensioner scopula fibulata , the Bluebird Zizeeria Knysna , numerous cutworm , including Spodoptera species, many spilomelinae as Herpetogramma bipunctalis and Spoladea recurvalis , as well as the diamond-back moth ( Plutella xylostella ).

Occurrence

The genus Spinacia is native to West Asia and Central Asia. It has long been naturalized in the Mediterranean region . Introduced as a cultivated plant or feral as an adventitious plant , real spinach occurs in temperate and subtropical regions of Europe , Asia and North America .

Systematics

The genus Spinacia belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae within the foxtail family (Amaranthaceae). This family now includes the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae). In the past, the genus was grouped into the Atripliceae tribe , the species of which also have female flowers wrapped in bracts. After phylogenetic studies, it was excluded from the Atripliceae in 2010. Since 2012 Spinacia has formed the Anserineae tribe together with the genus Blitum . The genus Spinacia is monophyletic .

The genus Spinacia was first published in 1753 by Carl von Linné in Species Plantarum , 2, p. 1027. The type species is Spinacia oleracea L. The scientific genus name Spinacia refers to the thorny fruits (Latin "spina" = thorn, Persian "ispanakh") according to the Flora of North America ).

Three species belong to the genus Spinacia :

  • Real spinach ( Spinacia oleracea L. ): This cultivated form probably originated from the two wild species in Southwest Asia , because a wild form is not known. As a cultivated vegetable plant it is widespread in Europe , Asia and North America , sometimes it is also found wild. It grows in the temperate and subtropical regions up to an altitude of 1550 meters (in Afghanistan).
  • Spinacia tetrandra Steven ex M.Bieb. : It iswidespreadin the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan) and western Asia (western Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and possibly also in eastern Turkey). It grows in semi-deserts, steppes, wasteland, fields and on the shores of salt lakes up to an altitude of 1400 meters.
  • Spinacia turkestanica Iljin : It is distributed in Central Asia from Iran via Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan to southern Russia east of the Caspian Sea and via Pakistan to Tibet and India. Their habitat are steppes and semi-deserts as well as roadsides, fields and gardens up to an altitude of 1500 meters.

use

Real spinach ( Spinacia oleracea ) is a valued food plant and is also used as a medicinal plant.

literature

  • Pertti Uotila: Spinacia . In: Karl Heinz Rechinger et al. (Ed.): Flora Iranica , Volume 172 - Chenopodiaceae . Graz, Akad. Druck, 1997, pp. 59-63. (Sections description, occurrence, systematics)
  • Leila M. Shultz: Spinacia , p. 302 - the same text online as the printed work , In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (Ed.): Flora of North America North of Mexico . Volume 4: Magnoliophyta: Caryophyllidae, part 1 . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford a. a. 2003, ISBN 0-19-517389-9 (English). (Sections Description, Chromosome Number, Common Names)
  • Gelin Zhu, Sergei L. Mosyakin & Steven E. Clemants: Chenopodiaceae : Spinacia , p. 366 - online with the same text as the printed work , In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (eds.): Flora of China , Volume 5 : Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. , Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing and St. Louis, 2003, ISBN 1-930723-27-X . (Sections Description, Common Names)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Gudrun Kadereit, Evgeny V. Mavrodiev, Elizabeth H. Zacharias, Alexander P. Sukhorukov: Molecular phylogeny of Atripliceae (Chenopodioideae, Chenopodiaceae): Implications for systematics, biogeography, flower and fruit evolution, and the origin of C4 Photosynthesis , In: American Journal of Botany , Volume 97 (10), 2010, pp. 1664-1687.
  2. ^ Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni & Luis M. Hernández: Entry at HOSTS - A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants .
  3. ^ Pertti Uotila: Chenopodiaceae (pro parte majore) . - In: Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Spinacia . 2011. Entry at Euro + Med Plantbase .
  4. ↑ Entry at PLANTS.USDA
  5. ↑ Susy Fuentes-Bazan, Pertti Uotila, Thomas Borsch: A novel phylogeny-based generic classification for Chenopodium sensu lato, and a tribal rearrangement of Chenopodioideae (Chenopodiaceae). In: Willdenowia. Volume 42, No. 1, 2012, p. 16.
  6. ↑ Susy Fuentes-Bazan, Guilhem Mansion, Thomas Borsch: Towards a species level tree of the globally diverse genus Chenopodium (Chenopodiaceae) . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . Volume 62, number 1, 2012, pp. 359-374, doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2011.10.006 .
  7. ↑ First publication scanned at Biodiversity Heritage Library
  8. ↑ Entry in Liber Herbarum
  9. ↑ Entry in Plants For A Future

Web links

Commons : Spinach ( Spinacia )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files