Suaeda

{{Short description|Genus of aquatic plants}}

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{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Suaeda maritima.jpg

|image_caption = Suaeda maritima

|taxon = Suaeda

|authority = Forssk. ex J.F. Gmel. (1776), nom. cons.

|subdivision_ranks = Species

|subdivision = 93; see text

|subdivision_ref = [https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:331991-2 Suaeda Forssk. ex J.F.Gmel.] Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 5 April 2024.

|synonyms =

• Alexandra {{small|Bunge (1843)}}
• Belowia {{small|Moq. (1849)}}
• Borsczowia {{small|Bunge (1877)}}
• Brezia {{small|Moq. (1849)}}
• Calvelia {{small|Moq. (1849)}}
• Chenopodina {{small|Moq. (1849)}}
• Cochliospermum {{small|Lag. (1817)}}
• Dondia {{small|Adans. (1763), nom. superfl.}}
• Helicilla {{small|Moq. (1849)}}
• Lerchia {{small|Haller ex Zinn (1757), nom. rej.}}
• Pterocalyx {{small|Schrenk (1843)}}
• Schanginia {{small|C.A.Mey. (1829)}}
• Schoberia {{small|C.A.Mey. (1829)}}
• Trikalis {{small|Raf. (1837)}}

|synonyms_ref =

}}

Suaeda is a genus of plants also known as seepweeds{{PLANTS|id=SUAED|taxon=Suaeda|access-date=4 December 2015}} and sea-blites. Most species are confined to saline or alkaline soil habitats, such as coastal salt-flats and tidal wetlands. Many species have thick, succulent leaves, a characteristic seen in various plant genera that thrive in salty habitats (halophile plants).

There are about 110 species in the genus Suaeda.{{cite book |last1=Ferren |first1=Wayne R. Jr. |last2=Jochen Schenk |first2=H. |date=2003 |chapter=Suaeda |chapter-url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=131865 |editor1-last=Flora of North America Editorial Committee |title=Flora of North America North of Mexico |volume=4 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=260, 360, 389, 390 |isbn=9780195173895}}

The most common species in northwestern Europe is S. maritima. It grows along the coasts, especially in saltmarsh areas, and is known in Britain as "common sea-blite", but as "herbaceous seepweed" in the USA. It is also common along the east coast of North America from Virginia northward. One of its varieties is common in tropical Asia on the land-side edge of mangrove tidal swamps. Another variety of this polymorphic species is common in tidal zones all around Australia (Suaeda maritima var. australis is also classed as S. australis). On the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea a common Suaeda species is S. vera. This is known as "shrubby sea-blite" in English. It grows taller and forms a bush.

The name Suaeda comes from an oral (non-literary) Arabic name for the Suaeda vera species transliterated as {{Transliteration|ar|suaed}}, {{Transliteration|ar|sawād}} or {{Transliteration|ar|suēd}},Article [http://retro.seals.ch/digbib/view?rid=vxr-001:1937:2::83 Soda, by Arnald Steiger, year 1937, on pages 74-75] and it was assigned as the genus name by the 18th century taxonomist Peter Forsskål during his visit to the Red Sea area in the early 1760s.{{Cite web |title=Archived TJM 1993 treatment for SUAEDA calceoliformis |url=https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment?3084,3209,3210 |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=ucjeps.berkeley.edu}} Forsskål's book, Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica, published 1775, in Latin, declares Suæda as a newly created genus name, with the name taken from an Arabic name Suæd and presents the species members of the new genus.{{Cite book |last1=Forsska?l |first1=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/mobot31753002702097#page/XXXVIII |title=Flora Aegyptiaco?Arabica ?sive descriptiones plantarum ?quas per agytum inferiorem et arabiam felicem detexit, illustravit Petrus Forska?l. Post mortem auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr. |last2=Niebuhr |first2=Carsten |date=1775 |publisher=Haunia (Copenhagen) : ex officina Mo?lleri |others=Missouri Botanical Garden |pages={{subst:roman|38}}, 69-71}}

The genus includes plants using either {{C3}} or {{C4}} carbon fixation. The latter pathway evolved independently three times in the genus and is now used by around 40 species. S. aralocaspica, classified in its own section Borszczowia, uses a particular type of {{C4}} photosynthesis without the typical "Kranz" leaf anatomy.{{cite journal |last1=Schütze |first1=P. |last2=Freitag |first2=H. |last3=Weising |first3=K. |title=An integrated molecular and morphological study of the subfamily Suaedoideae Ulbr. (Chenopodiaceae) |journal=Plant Systematics and Evolution |volume=239 |issue=3–4 |year=2003 |pages=257–286 |issn=0378-2697 |doi=10.1007/s00606-003-0013-2|bibcode=2003PSyEv.239..257S |s2cid=20250636 }}{{cite journal |last1=Kapralov |first1=M.V. |last2=Akhani |first2=H. |last3=Voznesenskaya |first3=E.V. |last4=Edwards |first4=G. |last5=Franceschi |first5=V. |last6=Roalson |first6=E.H. |title=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 |journal=Systematic Botany |volume=31 |issue=3 |year=2006 |pages=571–585 |issn=0363-6445 |doi=10.1600/036364406778388674|bibcode=2006SysBo..31..571K }}{{cite journal |last=Sage |first=R.F. |year=2016 |title=A portrait of the {{C4}} photosynthetic family on the 50th anniversary of its discovery: species number, evolutionary lineages, and Hall of Fame |journal=Journal of Experimental Botany |volume=67 |issue=14 |pages=4039–4056 |doi=10.1093/jxb/erw156 |issn=0022-0957 |pmid=27053721|doi-access=free }} {{open access}}