Bienertia Explained

Bienertia is a flowering plant genus that currently is classified in the family Amaranthaceae^[1] s.l. (including the family Chenopodiaceae). For long time, the genus was considered to consist only of one species, Bienertia cycloptera, but in 2005 and 2012, two new species have been separated.

Species of this genus have acquired an unusual, single-cell type of carbon fixation without Kranz anatomy, also found in some species of the closely related genus Suaeda.^{[2] [3]}

Species

Four species are accepted.^[1]

• Bienertia cycloptera – Turkey, Transcaucasus, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and southern European Russia
• Bienertia kavirense – Iran
• Bienertia przewalskii – north-central China, Inner Mongolia, and Mongolia
• Bienertia sinuspersici – Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf states

Notes and References

1. Web site: Bienertia Bunge ex Boiss.. . n.d.. Plants of the World Online. The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 4 April 2024.
2. Kapralov . M.V. . Akhani . H. . Voznesenskaya . E.V. . Edwards . G. . Franceschi . V. . Roalson . E.H. . Phylogenetic Relationships in the Salicornioideae / Suaedoideae / Salsoloideae s.l. (Chenopodiaceae) clade and a clarification of the phylogenetic position of Bienertia and Alexandra using multiple DNA sequence datasets . Systematic Botany . 31 . 3 . 2006 . 571–585 . 0363-6445 . 10.1600/036364406778388674.
3. Sage . R.F. . 2016 . A portrait of the photosynthetic family on the 50th anniversary of its discovery: species number, evolutionary lineages, and Hall of Fame . Journal of Experimental Botany . 67 . 14 . 4039–4056 . 10.1093/jxb/erw156 . 0022-0957 . 27053721. free .