''Montia'' is a genus of plants in the family

Montiaceae Montiaceae are a family of flowering plants, comprising about 14 genera with about 230 known species, ranging from small herbaceous plants to shrubs. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution. The family Montiaceae was newly adopted in the APG ...

. Species in this genus are known generally as miner's lettuce or water chickweed. All of the species in the genus have edible leaves. It is found worldwide, except in Asia. Montias are known from fossilized seeds recovered from sediments of the Pleistocene Tomales Formation and from a small paleoflora at

San Bruno San Bruno () is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States census. The city is between South San Francisco and Millbrae, adjacent to San Francisco Internat ...

. Further, Daniel Axelrod discussed ''Montia howellii'' as one of the biogeographically significant species comprising the Millerton paleoflora at Tomales. The genus name of ''Montia'' is in honour of

Giuseppe Monti Giuseppe Monti (27 November 1682 – 29 February 1760) was an Italians, Italian chemist and Botany, botanist. He was a professor of botany and from 1722 to 1760 director of the Bologna Botanical Garden. His son Gaetano Lorenzo Monti (1712–1797) ...

(1682–1760), an Italian chemist and botanist. It was first described and published in Sp. Pl. on page 87 in 1753. ''Montia perfoliata'', now ''

Claytonia perfoliata ''Claytonia perfoliata'', commonly known as miner's lettuce or winter purslane, is a flowering plant in the family Montiaceae. It is an edible, fleshy, herbaceous, annual plant native to the western mountain and coastal regions of North America. ...

'', the species for which the term miner's lettuce was coined, is distributed throughout the Mountain West of North America in moist soils and prefers areas which have been recently disturbed. The species got its name due to its use as a fresh salad green by miners in the 1849

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

.Edible and Medicinal plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, Selected species: *'' Montia australasica'' - white purslane *'' Montia bostockii'' - Bostock's miner's lettuce *''

Montia chamissoi ''Montia chamissoi'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common names of water minerslettuce, water montia, Indian lettuce, and toad lily. It is native to much of western North America from Alaska to the southwes ...

'' - water miner's lettuce, toadlily *'' Montia dichotoma'' - dwarf miner's lettuce *'' Montia diffusa'' - spreading miner's lettuce, branching montia *''

Montia fontana ''Montia'' is a genus of plants in the family Montiaceae. Species in this genus are known generally as miner's lettuce or water chickweed. All of the species in the genus have edible leaves. It is found worldwide, except in Asia. Montias are kno ...

'' - annual water miner's lettuce, water-blinks *'' Montia howellii'' - Howell's miner's lettuce *'' Montia linearis'' - narrowleaf miner's lettuce *''

Montia parvifolia ''Montia parvifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common names little-leaf miner's lettuce, small-leaved blinks and small-leaved montia. It is native to western North America from Alaska to California to ...

'' - littleleaf miner's lettuce File:Montia fontana mofo 005 php.jpg, ''Montia fontana'' File:Montia chamissoi.jpg, ''Montia chamissoi''

References

External links

* Caryophyllales genera Plants described in 1753 {{Caryophyllales-stub