SPECIES DESCRIPTION
HALIMIONE PORTULACOIDES
Family and Genus:- See- AMARANTHACEAE
Common Name:- Sea purslane
Homotypic Synonyms:- Atriplex portulacoides, Obione portulacoides.
Meaning:- Halimione (Gr) Daughter-of-the-Sea.
Halimi- (Gr) Orache-like, with silver-grey rounded leaves.
Portulacoides (L) Resembling portulaca.
General description:- Dioecious or monoecious much-branched subshrub.
Stems:-
1) 20-100 cm, pale, angular, prostrate-decumbent to suberect, usually rooting at
the nodes.
Leaves:-
1) 1.5-5 x 0.3-1.2 cm, opposite, (alternate in the upper part of the flowering stem).
subsessile to shortly petiolate, elliptic-ovate to oblong-obovate, cuneate to
attenuate at the base, obtuse or subacute, entire, densely lepidote somewhat
fleshy.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, 5-10 cm, paniculate.
2) Flowers, in small clusters, male intermixed with female or on separate plants.
3) Bracts, absent.
4) Perianth segments:
a) male flowers, 4-5, c. 0.8 x 0.4 rn, oblong, connate at the base.
5) Stamens, 4-5.
a) filaments, glabrous, c. 0.8 mm.
c) anthers, yellow.
6) Bracteoles, 2-4(-5) x 3.8-5 mm, connate to the middle or almost to the apex.
deltoid, 3-lobed, somewhat thickened-fleshy, median lobe longer than the two
laterals, with or without dorsal rounded tubercles or appendages.
Fruit:-
1) Seed, c. 2 mm diam, vertical, lenticular,
a) testa, lax, shiny, minutely pitted.
Key features:-
1) Bracteoles, connate almost to the apex in fruit.
Habitat:- Rocky and sandy beaches, saltmarshes, lagoons, ruderal habitats
generally by the sea, occasionally to 130 m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece. Coasts of W Europe an the Mediterranean
region inland on saline soil in Anatolia and Palestine. Rare on Crete known onl from
a few coastal locations.
Flowering time:- July-Oct(-Nov).
Photos by:- An Other
