Mesembryanthemum
Encyclopedia
Mesembryanthemum is a genus
of plant
s native to southern Africa
. Many species which were formerly placed herein have since been moved into other genera such as Carpobrotus
Sceletium is sometimes included here.
Fig marigold or Icicle plant is a name for any of several South African taxa of Mesembryanthemum which are cultivated as ornamental plant
s for their showy pink or white flowers. "Pebble plant" or "Ice plant
" are other but rather ambiguous common names, usually referring to other Aizoaceae.
Mesembryanthemum is a member of the family
Aizoaceae
; like many members of this family, it is characterized by long-lasting flower heads. Flowers of Mesembryanthemum protect their gamete
s from night-time dews or frosts but open in sunlight. There is an obvious evolution
ary advantage to doing this; where sun
, dew
, frost
, wind or predators are likely to damage exposed reproductive organs, closing may be advantageous during times when flowers are unlikely to attract pollinator
s.
Ornamental Mesembryanthemum may escape into the wild and consequently has become widely naturalized outside their native range. They are considered an invasive weed in certain places. Some species are hallucinogenic plants and as such may be subject to legal restrictions (e.g. Louisiana State Act 159
).
roots , meaning "noon", and , meaning "flower", because the species known at his time flowered at midday. In 1719, on the discovery that some species flowered at night, Johann Jacob Dillenius
changed the spelling to "Mesembryanthemum", rederiving the first part of the word from Greek ("middle") and ("rudimentary fruit" or "embryo
").
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s native to southern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Many species which were formerly placed herein have since been moved into other genera such as Carpobrotus
Carpobrotus
Carpobrotus is a genus of ground-creeping plants, with succulent leaves and large daisy-like flowers. The name refers to the edible fruits. It comes from the Greek "karpos" and "brota" .There are about 25 species in this genus, having a disperse distribution worldwide...
Sceletium is sometimes included here.
Fig marigold or Icicle plant is a name for any of several South African taxa of Mesembryanthemum which are cultivated as ornamental plant
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
s for their showy pink or white flowers. "Pebble plant" or "Ice plant
Ice plant
- Plant common names :* Aizoaceae, the ice plant family* Carpobrotus chilensis* Carpobrotus edulis* Conicosia, narrow-leafed ice plants* Delosperma cooperi, Cooper's ice plant* Delosperma bosseranum...
" are other but rather ambiguous common names, usually referring to other Aizoaceae.
Mesembryanthemum is a member of the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Aizoaceae
Aizoaceae
The Family Aizoaceae or Ficoidaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1900 species. They are commonly known as stone plants or carpet weeds. Species that resemble stones or pebbles are sometimes called mesembs...
; like many members of this family, it is characterized by long-lasting flower heads. Flowers of Mesembryanthemum protect their gamete
Gamete
A gamete is a cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization in organisms that reproduce sexually...
s from night-time dews or frosts but open in sunlight. There is an obvious evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary advantage to doing this; where sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
, dew
Dew
[Image:Dew on a flower.jpg|right|220px|thumb|Some dew on an iris in Sequoia National Park]]Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening...
, frost
Frost
Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water. Frost crystals' size differ depending on time and water vapour available. Frost is also usually...
, wind or predators are likely to damage exposed reproductive organs, closing may be advantageous during times when flowers are unlikely to attract pollinator
Pollinator
A pollinator is the biotic agent that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization or syngamy of the female gamete in the ovule of the flower by the male gamete from the pollen grain...
s.
Ornamental Mesembryanthemum may escape into the wild and consequently has become widely naturalized outside their native range. They are considered an invasive weed in certain places. Some species are hallucinogenic plants and as such may be subject to legal restrictions (e.g. Louisiana State Act 159
Louisiana State Act 159
Signed into law June 28, 2005 and effective August 8, 2005, Louisiana State Act No 159 found in, Louisiana RS 40:989.1, outlawed the cultivation, possession or sale of 40 known hallucinogenic plants in the state of Louisiana...
).
Name
Jacob Breyne coined the name of the flower in 1684, using the spelling Mesembrianthemum, from the GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
roots , meaning "noon", and , meaning "flower", because the species known at his time flowered at midday. In 1719, on the discovery that some species flowered at night, Johann Jacob Dillenius
Johann Jacob Dillenius
Johann Jacob Dillen Dillenius was a German botanist.Dillen was born at Darmstadt and was educated at the University of Giessen, where he wrote several botanical papers for the Ephemerides naturae curiosorum, and printed, in 1719, his Catalogus plantarum sponte circa Gissam nascentium, illustrated...
changed the spelling to "Mesembryanthemum", rederiving the first part of the word from Greek ("middle") and ("rudimentary fruit" or "embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
").
Selected species
- Mesembryanthemum cordifolium
- Mesembryanthemum crystallinumMesembryanthemum crystallinumMesembryanthemum crystallinum is a prostrate succulent plant that is native to Africa, Western Asia and Europe. The plant is covered with large, glistening bladder cells, reflected in its common names of Common Ice Plant, Crystalline Iceplant or Iceplant.-Uses:Its leaves are edible, as with some...
- Mesembryanthemum nodiflorumMesembryanthemum nodiflorumMesembryanthemum nodiflorum is a species of succulent plant in the ice plant family known by the common name slenderleaf ice plant. It is native to southern Africa, but it is known in many other places as an introduced species and sometimes an invasive weed, including several regions of Australia,...
- Mesembryanthemum salmii