Aizoaceae

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The Aizoaceae (Template:IPAc-en), or fig-marigold family, are a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1,800 species.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Several genera are commonly named ice plants or carpet weeds. The Aizoaceae are also referred to as vygies in South Africa. Some of the unusual Southern African genera—such as Conophytum, Lithops, Titanopsis, and Pleiospilos (among others)—resemble gemstones, rocks, or pebbles, and are sometimes called living stones or mesembs (short for mesembryanthemums).

Description

File:Mesembryanthemum guerichianum seedling IMG 8167-cropped.jpg
Mesembryanthemum guerichianum seedling, showing the epidermal bladder cells that inspired the name "ice plant"
File:LL-Q14196 (afr)-Oesjaar-vygie.wav
Pronunciation of the South African colloquial name, Vygie, for Aizoaceae

The family Aizoaceae is widely recognised by taxonomists. It once went by the botanical name "Ficoidaceae", now disallowed. The APG II system of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system of 1998) also recognizes the family, and assigns it to the order Caryophyllales in the clade core eudicots. The APG II system also classes the former families Mesembryanthemaceae Fenzl, Sesuviaceae Horan. and Tetragoniaceae Link under the family Aizoaceae.

The common Afrikaans name "vygie" meaning "small fig" refers to the fruiting capsule, which resembles the true fig.<ref name="SSP">Template:Cite web</ref> Glistening epidermal bladder cells give the family its common name "ice plants".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Most fig-marigolds are herbaceous, rarely somewhat woody, with sympodial growth and stems either erect or prostrate. Leaves are simple, opposite or alternate, and more or less succulent with entire (or rarely toothed) margins. Flowers are perfect in most species (but unisexual in some), actinomorphic, and appear singularly or in few-flowered cymes developing from the leaf axils. Sepals are typically five (3–8) and more or less connate (fused) below. True petals are absent. However, some species have numerous linear petals derived from staminodes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The seed capsules have one to numerous seeds per cell and are often hygrochastic, dispersing seeds by "jet action" when wet.<ref name=":0" />

Distribution

Most species (96%, 1782 species in 132 genera) in this family are endemic to arid or semiarid parts of Southern Africa in the Succulent Karoo.<ref name="Mesembryanthemaceae">Template:Cite journal</ref> Much of the Aizoaceae's diversity is found in the Greater Cape Floristic Region, which is the most plant-diverse temperate region in the world.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A few species are found in Australia and the Central Pacific area.<ref name="WOS">Template:Cite web</ref>

Carpobrotus is found as an introduced species on the western coast of the United States, New Zealand, the Mediterranean coast of Europe and the southern coast of Brazil.

Evolution

The radiation of the Aizoaceae, specifically the subfamily Ruschioideae, was one of the most recent among the angiosperms, occurring 1.13–6.49 Mya. It is also one of the fastest radiations ever described in the angiosperms, with a diversification rate of about 4.4 species per million years.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> This diversification was roughly contemporaneous with major radiations in two other succulent lineages, Cactaceae and Agave.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The family includes many species that use crassulacean acid metabolism as pathway for carbon fixation. Some species in the subfamily Sesuvioideae instead use [[C4 carbon fixation|Template:C4 carbon fixation]], which might have evolved multiple times in the group.<ref name="BohleyJoos2015">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Taxonomy

File:Aptenia cordifolia flower leaves.jpg
Mesembryanthemum cordifolium or rock rose

Because of the hyperdiversity of the Aizoaceae and the young age of the clade, many generic and species boundaries are uncertain.<ref name=":1" />

File:Carpobrotus edulis 4.JPG
Carpobrotus edulis, an "ice plant"
File:Cheiridopsis denticulata.jpg
Cheiridopsis denticulata
File:Drosanthemum speciosumP1050020.JPG
Drosanthemum speciosum
File:Fenestraria rhopalophylla.jpg
Fenestraria rhopalophylla
File:Jensenobotrya lossowiana.jpg
Jensenobotrya lossowiana
File:Lithops bromfieldii (25916752581).jpg
Lithops bromfieldii
File:Sesuvium p.jpg
Sesuvium portulacastrum

Subfamily Acrosanthoideae

Genera:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Subfamily Aizooideae

Genera:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Subfamily Mesembryanthemoideae

Genera:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

  • Aptenia N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Aridaria N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Aspazoma N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Brownanthus Schwantes, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Dactylopsis N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Mesembryanthemum L.
  • Phyllobolus N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Prenia N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Psilocaulon N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum
  • Synaptophyllum N.E.Br, synonym of Mesembryanthemum

Subfamily Ruschioideae

Genera:

Tribe Apatesieae<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Tribe Dorotheantheae<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Aethephyllum N.E.Br, synonym of Cleretum
  • Cleretum N.E.Br
  • Dorotheanthus Schwantes, synonym of Cleretum
Tribe Ruschieae<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Subfamily Sesuvioideae

This subfamily includes a number of Template:C4 species.<ref name="BohleyJoos2015"/>

Genera:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tribe Anisostigmateae<ref>Klak, C., Hanáček2, P. and Bruyns, P.V. (2017), Disentangling the Aizooideae
New generic concepts and a new subfamily in Aizoaceae. Taxon, 66: 1147-1170. https://doi.org/10.12705/665.9</ref>
Tribe Sesuvieae

Unplaced genera

Include;

Uses

File:Starr 050222-4149 Tetragonia tetragonioides.jpg
Tetragonia tetragonoides ("New Zealand spinach")

Several genera are cultivated. Lithops, or "living stones", are popular as novelty house plants because of their stone-like appearance.

Some species are edible, including:

C. edulis was introduced to California in the early 1900s to stabilize soil along railroad tracks and has become invasive.<ref name=CAL-IPC>Template:Cite web</ref> In southern California, ice plants are sometimes used as firewalls;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> however, they do burn if not carefully maintained.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Clear

References

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Further reading

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