''Mesembryanthemum'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Aizoaceae; like many members of this family, it is characterized by long-lasting flower heads. Flowers of ''Mesembryanthemum'' protect their

gamete A gamete (; , ultimately ) is a haploid cell that fuses with another haploid cell during fertilization in organisms that reproduce sexually. Gametes are an organism's reproductive cells, also referred to as sex cells. In species that produce ...

s from night-time dews or frosts but open in sunlight. There is an obvious

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

ary advantage to doing this; where

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, dew, frost, wind or

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

s are likely to damage exposed

reproductive organs A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

, closing may be advantageous during times when flowers are unlikely to attract pollinators. It is

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

to southern Africa. Many ''Mesembryanthemum'' species are known as ice plants because of the glistening globular bladder cells covering their stems, fruit and leaves, "... they sparkle like ice crystals". In

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, Mesembryanthemums are known as "vygies" (from

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

"vy"), although this term refers to many plants in the family Aizoaceae.

Species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

formerly placed in ''Mesembryanthemum'' have been transferred to other genera, such as '' Cleretum'', '' Carpobrotus'' and '' Sceletium'', although sources differ.

Etymology

Jacob Breyne coined the name of the flower in 1684, using the spelling ''Mesembrianthemum'' ("midday flower"), from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

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 Dillen Dillenius (1684 – 2 April 1747) was a German botanist. He is known for his ''Hortus Elthamensis'' ("Eltham Garden") on the rare plants around Eltham, London, and for his ''Historia muscorum'' ("History of Mosses"), a natur ...

changed the spelling to ''Mesembryanthemum'' ("flower with the pistil in the center"), rederiving the first part of the word from Greek ("middle") and (" pistil" or " embryo").

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

used the Dillenius spelling (with the "y") in his description of the ''Mesembryanthemum'' species and the

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "trad ...

requires the retention of the original, deliberate spelling.Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v.
Mesembryanthemum, n.
(accessed June 24, 2008).

Uses

Mesembryanthemums are often cultivated as

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

s for their showy flowers. Ornamental plants may escape into the wild and consequently have become widely naturalized outside their native range. They are considered an invasive weed in certain places.

Culture and society

Some ''Mesembryanthemum'' species are thought to be hallucinogenic plants, like related Aizoaceae,Watt, John Mitchell; Breyer-Brandwijk, Maria Gerdina: The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa 2nd ed Pub. E & S Livingstone 1962 and as such may be subject to legal restrictions (e.g. Louisiana State Act 159).

Species

Mesembryanthemum cordifolium ''Mesembryanthemum cordifolium'' formerly known as ''Aptenia cordifolia'' is a species of succulent plant in the iceplant family. It is a creeping plant that forms a carpet of flat-growing perennial herbs in groups on the ground from a base. Gen ...

'' L.f. *'' Mesembryanthemum coriarium'' Burch. *'' Mesembryanthemum crassicaule'' Haw. *'' Mesembryanthemum cryptanthum'' Hook.f. *''

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum ''Mesembryanthemum crystallinum'' is a prostrate succulent plant native to Africa, Sinai and southern Europe, and naturalized in the New World. The plant is covered with large, glistening bladder cells or water vesicles, reflected in its common ...

Mesembryanthemum tortuosum ''Mesembryanthemum tortuosum'' (many synonyms, including ''Sceletium tortuosum'') is a succulent plant in the family Aizoaceae native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It is known as kanna, channa, kougoed (kauwgoed/ 'kougoed', prepared fro ...

'' L. *'' Mesembryanthemum trichotomum'' Thunb. *'' Mesembryanthemum vaginatum'' Lam. *'' Mesembryanthemum vanheerdei'' (L.Bolus) Klak *'' Mesembryanthemum vanrensburgii'' (L.Bolus) Klak *'' Mesembryanthemum varians'' Haw. *'' Mesembryanthemum viridiflorum'' Aiton

Gallery

File:Mesembryanthemum crystallinum 1983-2.JPG, '' M. crystallinum'' File:Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum kz7.JPG, '' M. nodiflorum''

Legal status

United States

Louisiana

Except for ornamental purposes, growing, selling or possessing any species of ''Mesembryanthemum'' is prohibited by Louisiana State Act 159.

Notes and references

* * Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1922381 Aizoaceae genera Flora of South Africa Fynbos Succulent plants Barilla plants