''Alternanthera nahui'', common name nahui, is a species 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, making i ...

, native to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

and to

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together w ...

Description

It is a perennial herb that has a slender tap root. Its stems are 1.5–3.0 mm in diameter and tend to lie down. It can be distinguished from ''

Alternanthera sessilis ''Alternanthera sessilis'' is a flowering plant known by several common names, including sissoo spinach, Brazilian spinach, sessile joyweed and dwarf copperleaf. It is cultivated as a vegetable worldwide. Distribution The plant occurs throughout ...

'' by its narrower leaves, its keeled tepals, its shorter staminodes and style.

Taxonomy

It was first described in 2009 by

Peter Heenan Peter Heenan, (February 19, 1875 – May 12, 1948) was a Canadian union leader and politician, and also served as a cabinet minister at the federal and provincial levels. Early life Born in Tullaree, near Newcastle, County Down, Irela ...

Peter de Lange Peter de Lange (23 March 1988) is a Dutch association football player in the forward position. He is a resident of Rotterdam. Club career De Lange played in Barendrecht, Willem II, SBV Excelsior, Barendrecht, VV Capelle, and Spakenburg. From 201 ...

and J. Keeling.

Synonymy

There are no synonyms according to

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants ...

. However, according to

NZPCN The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network (NZPCN) is a non-governmental organisation devoted to the protection and restoration of New Zealand's indigenous plant life, including vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts and lichens. Descri ...

it has, from time to time, been incorrectly referred as ''

'' (L.) Roem. & Schult.

Habitat

It is a coastal and lowland species found in both seasonally and permanently wet habitats.

Conservation status

In the 2018 conservation assessment of

de Lange De Lange is a Dutch surname, meaning "the tall one". In 2007 about 11,000 people in the Netherlands carried the name.New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...

it was classed as "Not Threatened", having a "large, stable population".

References

External links

''Alternanthera nahui'' occurrence data
from

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgama ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21239043 nahui Flora of New Zealand Flora of Norfolk Island Taxa named by Peter Brian Heenan Taxa named by Peter James de Lange Plants described in 2009