''Suaeda aralocaspica'' is a species of plant 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 ...

that is restricted to the deserts of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. It is a

halophyte A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs, and seashores. ...

and uses carbon fixation but lacks the characteristic leaf anatomy of other plants (known as kranz anatomy). Carrying out complete C₄ photosynthesis within individual cells, these plants instead are known as single‐cell C4 system or SCC₄ plants. This makes them distinct from typical C₄ plants, which require the collaboration of two types of photosynthetic cells. SCC₄ plants have features that make them potentially valuable in engineering higher photosynthetic efficiencies in agriculturally important C₃ carbon fixation species such as rice. To address this, the 467 Mb genome of ''S. aralocaspica'' has been sequenced to help understanding of the evolution of SCC₄ photosynthesis and contribute to the engineering of C₄ photosynthesis into other economically important crops. It is

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...

, annual and grows to a height of between . It flowers in August, producing seeds of two different sizes that differ in their morphology, dormancy and germination characteristics. The species was formerly classified in its own genus ''Borszczowia'', which is now treated as section within genus '' Suaeda''.

References

aralocaspica Flora of Central Asia Barilla plants Taxa named by Alexander von Bunge {{Amaranthaceae-stub