Montia

Montia
Montia fontana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Core eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Montiaceae
Genus: Montia
L.
Species

about 12, see text

Montia is a genus of plants in the purslane family, Montiaceae. Species in this genus are known generally as miner's lettuce or minerslettuce.

Montia perfoliata, the species for which the term miner's lettuce was coined, is distributed throughout the Mountain West of North America in moist soils and prefers areas which have been recently disturbed. The species got its name due to its use as a fresh salad green by miners in the 1849 Gold Rush in California.[1]

Some members formerly of this genus are now considered to belong in Claytonia. The genus is being reorganized by taxonomists.

Selected species:

References

  1. Edible and Medicinal plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, ISBN 0-87842-359-1

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.