27. Borszczowia Bunge, Trudy Imp. S.-Peterburgsk. Bot. Sada. 5: 643. 1877.
异子蓬属 yi zi peng shu
Herbs annual, glabrous. Stem erect, much branched; branches alternate, only lower ones opposite. Leaves alternate, sessile, fleshy; lower leaves linear, semiterete; upper leaves narrowly elliptic, flattened. Flowers borne in axillary glomerules, sessile, unisexual (plants monoecious), each with 2 membranous, scale-like bractlets. Male flowers: perianth 5-parted; stamens 5, inserted at base of perianth; filaments filiform, sinuate; anthers subglobose, without an appendage; ovary rudimentary. Female flowers: perianth membranous, veinless, enlarging with ovary in fruit and enclosing utricle, apex 5-lobed or entire; ovary subovoid, slightly compressed; ovule stalked; style obscure; stigmas 2 or 3, subulate. Utricle baccate, of 2 types. Large utricles obovate; pericarp fleshy; endocarp membranous, not adherent to seed; seed vertical, globose, compressed; testa leathery. Small utricles pyriform; seed vertical, ovoid or lenticular; testa thinly crustaceous. Embryo planospiral; perisperm scant, glutinous.
One species: China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.
New morphological, anatomical, and molecular studies of Suaeda and related genera (Schütze et al., Pl. Syst. Evol., in press) indicate that Borszczowia is closely related to S. sect. Schanginia (C. A. Meyer) Volkens. Schütze et al. transferred B. aralocaspica to Suaeda and placed it in a monotypic section.
