Honckenya

{{Short description|Genus of plants in the carnation family}} {{Speciesbox |image=Honckenya peploides kz2.jpg |genus=Honckenya |parent_authority=Ehrh. |species=peploides |authority=(L.) Ehrh. |synonyms_ref=<ref name="154821-1" >{{cite web |url=http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:154821-1 |title=''Honckenya peploides'' (L.) Ehrh. |author= |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |access-date=7 April 2021 }}</ref> |synonyms={{Collapsible list| *''Adenarium marinum'' Gray *''Adenarium maritimum'' Raf. *''Adenarium peploides'' Raf. *''Alsine peploides'' Crantz *''Ammodenia maritima'' (Raf.) E.P.Bicknell *''Ammodenia peploides'' (L.) Rupr. *''Ammodenia peploides var. diffusa'' (Hornem.) Porsild *''Ammodenia peploides subsp. maritima'' (Raf.) W.Stone *''Ammonalia peploides'' (L.) Desv. *''Arenaria littoralis'' Salisb. *''Arenaria peploides'' L. *''Arenaria peploides var. diffusa'' Hornem. *''Arenaria peploides f. lamoureuxii'' Lepage *''Arenaria portulacea'' Lam. *''Arenaria sitchensis'' D.Dietr. *''Cerastium succulentum'' Crantz *''Halianthus peploides'' Fr. *''Holosteum succulentum'' L. *''Honckenya diffusa'' (Hornem.) Á.Löve *''Honckenya frigida'' Pobed. *''Honckenya maritima'' (Raf.) Raf. *''Honckenya peploides var. diffusa'' (Hornem.) Ostenf. *''Honckenya peploides var. latifolia'' Fenzl *''Merckia peploides'' G.Don *''Minuartia peploides'' (L.) Hiern *''Minuartia peploides var. diffusa'' Mattf. *''Minuartia peploides subsp. latifolia'' (Fenzl) Mattf. *''Minuartia peploides var. typica'' Mattf. }}}}

'''''Honckenya peploides''''', the '''sea sandwort''' (UK) or '''seaside sandplant''' (Canada),<ref>[http://www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/itisca/next?v_tsn=19970&taxa=&p_king=every&p_string=containing&p_ifx=cbif&p_lang= Integrated taxonomic information system (ITIS). (2009). Retrieved August/04, 2010]</ref> is the only species in the genus '''''Honckenya''''' of the plant family Caryophyllaceae. Other common names include '''sea chickweed''', '''sea pimpernal''', '''sea-beach sandwort''',<ref>{{cite book|author=Nowick, Elaine|title=Historical Common Names of Great Plains Plants Volume I: Historical Names (paperback)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HTTaCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA354 |year=2014 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1-60962-058-5 |page=354}}</ref> and '''sea purslane'''.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=115719 |title=Flora of North America |author=Warren L. Wagner |chapter=''Honckenya'' Ehrhart, Neues Mag. Aerzte. 5: 206. 1783.}}</ref> The scientific name is often spelled "''Honkenya''", and is named after the German botanist Gerhard August Honckeny (or Honkeny).<ref>{{cite book |author=Le Roy Abrams |author2=Roxana Stinchfield Ferris |name-list-style=amp |year=1923 |series=An Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States |volume=2 |title=Polygonaceae to Krameriaceae, buckwheats to kramerias |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804700047}}</ref> This plant has a circumboreal distribution.

The plant is a succulent perennial growing at the edge of the sea. It has small greenish white pentamerous flowers with 10 stamens in the male flowers borne in the leaf axils.<ref>''New Flora of the British Isles'', Clive Stace, 2005, Cambridge University Press</ref> The fruit capsule opens in three valves.

==Description== ''Honckenya peploides'' is a small, subdioecious, spreading plant, forming patches on sand and shingle above the high water mark of beaches. The stem is branching and buried in the sand. The leaves grow in opposite pairs and are fleshy with membranous margins, pale yellowish-green and ovate, oblong or lanceolate, usually with pointed tips. The flowers are often dioecious and have parts in fives. They grow in the upper leaf axils and have ovate to lanceolate sepals, greenish-white petals of about the same length, and three styles. The fruit is a capsule larger than the sepals and superficially resembling a pea. In pistillate flowers the stamens are undeveloped while in staminate flowers, the capsules are poorly developed.<ref name=Hulten/><ref>{{cite book |title=The Concise British Flora in Colour |last=Keble Martin |first=W |year=1965 |publisher=Ebury Press |page=16 }}</ref>

There are two subspecies, ''H. p. peploides'' is the nominate subspecies with ovate to lanceolate leaves and flowers growing singly in the upper leaf axils, while ''H. p. major'' is coarser, has longer, more slender leaves, and the flowers are mostly in a multi-flowered cyme.<ref name=Hulten>{{cite book|author=Hultén, Eric|title=Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants|url=https://archive.org/details/floraofalaskanei0000hult |url-access=registration|year=1968 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-0643-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/floraofalaskanei0000hult/page/434 434]}}</ref>

==Distribution== thumb|left|Sea sandwort on a beach in Anglesey ''Honckenya peploides'' has a circum-boreal distribution in both temperate and arctic regions. It is found in coastal regions on sand, shingle and pebbles, in northern Europe (including Britain), northern Asia and North America.<ref name=PFAF/>

==Research== Clumps of ''Honckenya peploides'' of one sex (with either staminate or pistillate flowers) may be separated by a few metres or hundreds of metres from clumps of the other sex. Researchers in Spain studied whether these clumps exhibited different ecophysiological traits which made them better adapted to different microhabitats. They found that shoots growing near the edge of the clumps had higher photosynthetic efficiency and chlorophyll content. Growth rates between clumps of the different sexes did not differ significantly from each other, and male plants continued to have reproductive costs associated with flowering after the female plants had ceased to flower and the seeds were ripening.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sexual dimorphism in ecological and physiological traits in the subdioecious dune plant Honckenya peploides (L.) Ehrh.| date=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mg2eA-gFlMEC&pg=PA63|publisher=Univ Santiago de Compostela |pages=63–|id=GGKEY:QTWHGSU6WGF}}</ref>

==Uses== Both the leaves and the seeds of ''H. peploides'' are used as food.<ref name=PFAF/> The shoots and leaves are rich in vitamin A and vitamin C and can be used as a green leafy vegetable either raw or cooked. They can also be fermented to prepare a sauerkraut-like preserve, and in Iceland are fermented in whey to produce a drink. The seeds are small in size and time-consuming to gather; they can be ground up and added to flour or used as a garnish.<ref name=PFAF>{{cite web |url=http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Honckenya+peploides |title=Honckenya peploides – (L.)Ehrh. |publisher=Plants for a Future |access-date=24 June 2016}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Honckenya peploides|''Honckenya peploides''}}

Category:Caryophyllaceae Category:Monotypic Caryophyllaceae genera Category:Flora of Northern America Category:Flora of Europe Category:Flora of temperate Asia Category:Taxa named by Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart Category:Halophytes