Sarcocornia

Key takeaways

Sarcocornia belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sarcocornia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sarcocornia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sarcocornia is a formerly recognized genus of flowering plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Species are known commonly as samphires, glassworts, or saltworts. Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that when separated from Salicornia, the genus is paraphyletic, since Salicornia is embedded within it, and Sarcocornia has now been merged into a more broadly circumscribed Salicornia. When separated from Salicornia, the genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and is most diverse in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa.

Description Species formerly placed in Sarcocornia are perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs. They are taking an erect or prostrate, creeping form. The new stems are fleshy and divided into joint-like segments. Older stems are woody and not segmented. The oppositely arranged leaves are borne on fleshy, knobby petioles, their base decurrent and connate (thus forming the segments), the blades forming small, triangular tips with narrow scarious margin.

The terminal or lateral inflorescences are spike-like, made up of joint-like segments with tiny paired cymes emerging from the joints. Each cyme consists of three (rarely five) flowers completely embedded between the bract and immersed in the fleshy tissue of the axis. The flowers of a cyme are arranged in a transverse row, the central flower separating the lateral flowers, with tissue of the axis between them. The hermaphrodite or unisexual flowers are more or less radially symmetric, with a perianth of three or four fleshy tepals connate nearly to the apex, one or two stamens, and an ovary with two or three stigmas. The perianth is persistent in fruit. The fruit wall (pericarp) is membranous. The vertical seed is ellipsoid, with light brown, membranous, hairy seed coat, the hairs can be strongly curved, hooked, or conic, straight or slightly curved. The seed contains no perisperm (feeding tissue). The basic chromosome number is x=9. The species are diploid (18 chromosomes), tetraploid (36), hexaploid (54), or octoploid (72).

Taxonomy The genus Sarcocornia was first described in 1978 by A J Scott. It separated the perennial species from the closely related annual Salicornia senus stricto, additionally containing some species formerly belonging to the former genus Arthrocnemum. The type species is Sarcocornia perennis. Sarcocornia/Salicornia began to evolve during the middle Miocene from ancestors in Eurasia, developing four phylogenetic lineages: the first was the Eurasian Sarcocornia clade, further diversifying into the American Sarcocornia clade, then the Salicornia clade, and the South African/Australian Sarcocornia clade. When Salicornia is separated from Sarcocornia to comprise all the annual, more frost tolerant species, the genus Sarcocornia is paraphyletic, since Salicornia evolved within Sarcocornia. The prostrate, mat-forming growth seems to have evolved several times independently. It is probably advantageous in habitats with prolonged flooding, high tidal movement and frost. A molecular phylogenetic study in 2017 confirmed the paraphyly of Sarcocornia, and merged the genus into Salicornia.

Selected former species Accepted names in Salicornia are taken from Plants of the World Online.

Sarcocornia alpini (Lag.) Rivas-Martınez = Salicornia alpini Sarcocornia ambigua (Michx.) M.A.Alonso & M.B.Crespo = Salicornia ambigua Sarcocornia andina (Phil.) Freitag, M.A.Alonso & M.B.Crespo = Salicornia andina Sarcocornia blackiana (Ulbr.) A.J.Scott = Salicornia blackiana Sarcocornia capensis (Moss) A.J.Scott = Salicornia capensis Sarcocornia carinata (Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez Mata) Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez Mata = Salicornia alpini subsp. carinata Sarcocornia decumbens (Tölken) A.J.Scott = Salicornia decumbens Sarcocornia decussata S.Steffen, Mucina & G.Kadereit = Salicornia decussata Sarcocornia dunensis (Moss) S.Steffen, Mucina & G.Kadereit = Salicornia dunensis Sarcocornia freitagii S. Steffen, Mucina & G.Kadereit = Salicornia helmutii Sarcocornia fruticosa (L.) A.J.Scott = Salicornia fruticosa Sarcocornia globosa P.G. Wilson = Salicornia globosa Sarcocornia hispanica Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez-Mata = Salicornia hispanica Sarcocornia lagascae Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez Mata = Salicornia lagascae Sarcocornia littorea (Moss) A.J.Scott = Salicornia littorea Sarcocornia magellanica (Phil.) M.A.Alonso & M.B.Crespo = Salicornia magellanica Sarcocornia mossambicensis Brenan = Salicornia mossambicensis Sarcocornia mossiana (Tölken) A.J.Scott = Salicornia mossiana Sarcocornia natalensis (Bunge ex Ung.-Sternb.) A.J.Scott = Salicornia natalensis Sarcocornia neei (Lag.) M.A.Alonso & M.B.Crespo = Salicornia neei Sarcocornia obclavata Yaprak = Salicornia obclavata Sarcocornia pacifica (Standl.) A.J.Scott = Salicornia pacifica Sarcocornia perennis (Miller) A.J.Scott = Salicornia perennis Sarcocornia pillansii (Moss) A.J.Scott = Salicornia pillansii Sarcocornia pruinosa Fuente, Rufo & Sánchez-Mata = Salicornia pruinosa Sarcocornia pulvinata (R.E.Fr.) A.J.Scott = Salicornia pulvinata Sarcocornia quinqueflora (Bunge ex Ung.-Sternb.) A.J. Scott = Salicornia quinqueflora Sarcocornia tegetaria S.Steffen, Mucina & G.Kadereit = Salicornia tegetaria Sarcocornia terminalis (Tölken) A.J.Scott = Salicornia terminalis Sarcocornia utahensis (Tidestr.) A.J.Scott = Salicornia utahensis Sarcocornia xerophila (Tölken) A.J.Scott = Salicornia xerophila

References

External links Media related to Sarcocornia at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Sarcocornia at Wikispecies Sarcocornia. Red List of South African Plants. South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sarcocornia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sarcocornia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sarcocornia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sarcocornia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sarcocornia

In research: Sarcocornia appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sarcocornia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sarcocornia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Halophytes, Historically recognized angiosperm genera, Salicornia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sarcocornia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Sarcocornia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sarcocornia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sarcocornia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sarcocornia in simple terms?

Sarcocornia is a formerly recognized genus of flowering plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Species are known commonly as samphires, glassworts, or saltworts.

Why does Sarcocornia matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sarcocornia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sarcocornia.