Montia

{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image =Illustration_Montia_fontana0.jpg

|image_caption = Montia fontana

|taxon = Montia

|authority = L.

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision = about 12, see text

| synonyms_ref = {{cite POWO |id=30000176-2 |title=Montia L. |access-date=27 October 2021}}

|synonyms = {{collapsible list |bullets = true

|title=Synonyms

|Cameraria Fabr.

|Claytoniella Jurtzev

|Crunocallis Rydb.

|Laterifissum Dulac

|Leptrina Raf.

|Limnalsine Rydb.

|Maxia Ö.Nilsson

|Mona Ö.Nilsson

|Montiastrum Rydb.

|Naiocrene Rydb.

|Neopaxia Ö.Nilsson

|Paxia Ö.Nilsson}}

}}

Montia is a genus of plants in the family Montiaceae. Species in this genus are known generally as miner's lettuce or water chickweed. All of the species in the genus have edible leaves.{{cite book |last=Whitney |first=Stephen |title=Western Forests (The Audubon Society Nature Guides) |date=1985 |publisher=Knopf |location=New York |isbn=0-394-73127-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/westernforests00whit/page/545 545] |url=https://archive.org/details/westernforests00whit/page/545 }} It is found worldwide, except in Asia.

Montias are known from fossilized seeds recovered from sediments of the Pleistocene Tomales Formation and from a small paleoflora at San Bruno.Mason, Herbert L. 1932. Pleistocene Flora from San Bruno. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 415, pages 25-44Mason, Herbert L. 1934. Pleistocene Flora from the Tomales Formation. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 415, pages 81-179. Further, Daniel Axelrod discussed Montia howellii as one of the biogeographically significant species comprising the Millerton paleoflora at Tomales.Axelrod, D. I. 1983. New Pleistocene Conifer Records, Coastal California. University of California Publications Geological Sciences Volume 127. Berkeley: University of California Press, 31 pp {{ISBN|0-520-09707-6}}

The genus name of Montia is in honour of Giuseppe Monti (1682–1760), an Italian chemist and botanist.{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition |trans-title=Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2018 | isbn=978-3-946292-26-5 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2018 |format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2018 | s2cid=187926901 |access-date=1 January 2021}} It was first described and published in Sp. Pl. on page 87 in 1753.

Montia perfoliata, now Claytonia perfoliata, the species for which the term miner's lettuce was coined, is distributed throughout the Mountain West of North America in moist soils and prefers areas which have been recently disturbed. The species got its name due to its use as a fresh salad green by miners in the 1849 California Gold Rush.Edible and Medicinal plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, {{ISBN|0-87842-359-1}}

Selected species:

• Montia australasica - white purslane
• Montia bostockii - Bostock's miner's lettuce
• Montia chamissoi - water miner's lettuce, toadlily
• Montia dichotoma - dwarf miner's lettuce
• Montia diffusa - spreading miner's lettuce, branching montia
• Montia fontana - annual water miner's lettuce, water-blinks
• Montia howellii - Howell's miner's lettuce
• Montia linearis - narrowleaf miner's lettuce
• Montia parvifolia - littleleaf miner's lettuce

File:Montia fontana mofo 005 php.jpg|Montia fontana

File:Montia chamissoi.jpg|Montia chamissoi