:Koenigia'' as described by

Philibert Commerçon Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French natural history, naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1 ...

is a synonym of ''

Dombeya ''Dombeya'' is a flowering plant genus. Traditionally included in the family Sterculiaceae, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae in the APG and most subsequent systematics. These plants are known by a number of vernacular names which sometim ...

. ''Koenigia'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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

Polygonaceae The Polygonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants known Common name, informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The Botanical name, name is Basionym, based on the genus ''Polygonum'', ...

. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''.

Description

Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual or perennial

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition o ...

s, growing from taproots. The flowers are arranged in terminal or axillary

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s. The flowers have pale

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s: white, greenish to yellowish white or pink. The seeds are borne in

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple fruit, simple dry fruits, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and Dehi ...

s that are usually brown or black in colour and not winged.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Koenigia'' was erected by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1767, initially for the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

Koenigia islandica ''Koenigia islandica'', the island knotweed, is a species of annual flowering plant in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae and is the type species of the genus ''Koenigia''. It is a very small plant and is found growing on wet gravel and scree in ...

''. The boundaries between genera in the family Polygonaceae, and the relationships among them, have long been a problem. At one time, many species were placed in the genus ''

Polygonum ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

''. ''Koenigia'' is placed in the subfamily

Polygonoideae Polygonoideae is a subfamily of plants in the family Polygonaceae. It includes a number of plants that can be highly invasive, such as Japanese knotweed, '' Reynoutria japonica'', and its hybrid with '' R. sachalinensis'', ''R.'' × ''bohemica' ...

, tribe Persicarieae, whose taxonomic history has been described as "exceptionally convoluted, even by Polygonaceae standards". A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of the subfamily

in 2015 showed that the genus ''Koenigia'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

with respect to the genus ''Aconogonon''. An earlier study had reached a similar conclusion, and had suggested that extra genera be created to maintain

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

taxa. The authors of the 2015 study preferred the alternative of merging the two genera, a proposal accepted by other sources. Using broad circumscriptions of the genera, the 2015 study suggested that relationships within the tribe Persicarieae were:

Species

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 ...

accepted the following species: *''

Koenigia alaskana ''Koenigia alaskana'' (synonym ''Aconogonon alaskanum'', ''Persicaria alpina'') is an Asian and North American species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common names Alaska wild-rhubarb and alpine knotweed. Description Thi ...

'' (Small) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia alpina ''Koenigia alpina'' (synonym ''Aconogonon alpinum''), commonly known as alpine knotweed, is similar to '' Koenigia alaskana'', but differs in leaf size and achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenoc ...

'' (All.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia campanulata ''Koenigia campanulata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae. It is native to China (Guizhou, west Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet), Bhutan, north Myanmar, Nepal and Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territo ...

'' (Hook.f.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia cathayana :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (A.J.Li) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia chuanzangensis :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' Z.Z.Zhou & Y.J.Min *''

Koenigia coriaria :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (Grig.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia cyanandra :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (Diels) Mesícek & Soják *''

Koenigia davisiae ''Koenigia davisiae'' is a flowering plant in the knotweed family that is known by the common names Davis' knotweed or Newberry knotweed. Distribution ''Koenigia davisiae'' is native to the western United States from Washington, Oregon, and cen ...

'' (W.H.Brewer ex A.Gray) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia delicatula'' (Meisn.) H.Hara *'' Koenigia divaricata'' (L.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal * ''Koenigia'' × ''fennica'' f(Reiersen) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia fertilis'' Maxim. *'' Koenigia filicaulis'' (Wall. ex Meisn.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia forrestii'' (Diels) Mesícek & Soják *''

Koenigia hedbergii :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' Bo Li & W.Du *'' Koenigia hookeri'' (Meisn.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

'' L. *'' Koenigia jurii'' (A.K.Skvortsov) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia lichiangensis'' (W.W.Sm.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia limosa'' (Kom.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia mollis ''Koenigia mollis'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, native to the eastern Himalayas and Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English n ...

'' (D.Don) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia nepalensis'' D.Don *''

Koenigia nummularifolia :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...

'' (Meisn.) Mesícek & Soják *'' Koenigia ocreata'' (L.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia panjutinii'' (Kharkev.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *''

Koenigia phytolaccifolia ''Koenigia phytolaccifolia'' (Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Aconogonon phytolaccifolium'') is a species of flowering plant in the Polygonaceae, knotweed family, known by the common name poke knotweed. Description ''Koenigia phytolaccifolia'' is ...

'' (Meisn. ex Small) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia pilosa'' Maxim. *'' Koenigia polystachya'' (Wall. ex Meisn.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia relicta'' (Kom.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia rumicifolia'' (Royle ex Bab.) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia songarica'' (Schrenk) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia tortuosa'' (D.Don) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia tripterocarpa'' (A.Gray) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia weyrichii'' (F.Schmidt) T.M.Schust. & Reveal *'' Koenigia yatagaiana'' (T.Mori) T.C.Hsu & S.W.Chung

Distribution and habitat

''Koenigia'' species are found in meadows, along stream banks, or on rocky slopes in arctic, temperate and alpine regions of the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2031320, from2=Q4059723 Polygonaceae genera Polygonoideae Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus