''Aerva'' is a genus of

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s in the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae ( ) is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus '' Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, maki ...

. Its species are native to the palaeotropics, throughout continental

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and smaller islands (

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

and

Socotra Socotra, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, it lies near major shipping routes. Socotra is the largest of the six islands in the Socotra archipelago as ...

), through parts of the Middle East, India, and southeast Asia. ''Aerva javanica'' is an alien in northern Australia. At least four species in the genus have acquired the carbon fixation pathway.

Species

Six species are accepted.''Aerva'' Forssk.
''

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

''. Retrieved 16 March 2024. * '' Aerva javanica'' – northern and eastern Africa, Madagascar, Arabian Peninsula and west Asia, Indian subcontinent, and Myanmar * '' Aerva madagassica'' – Madagascar * '' Aerva radicans'' – India * '' Aerva sericea'' – Hawaiian Islands (extinct) * '' Aerva villosa'' – Mauritius * '' Aerva wightii'' – India

Formerly placed here

* ''

Ouret lanata ''Ouret lanata'' (synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Aerva lanata''), the mountain knotgrass, is a woody, prostrate or succulent, perennial herb in the family Amaranthaceae, native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. It has been included as occurring ...

'' (as ''Aerva lanata'' ) * '' Paraerva microphylla'' (as ''Aerva microphylla'' ) * '' Paraerva revoluta'' (as ''Aerva revoluta'' ) * '' Wadithamnus artemisioides'' (as ''Aerva artemisioides'' )

References

External links

* * * Amaranthaceae genera Taxa named by Peter Forsskål Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Amaranthaceae-stub