Species formerly placed in
Sarcocornia are
perennial herbs,
subshrubs or
shrubs. The new stems are fleshy and divided into joint-like segments. Older stems are woody and not segmented. The oppositely arranged
leaves are borne on fleshy, knobby
petioles, their base decurrent and connate (thus forming the segments), the blades forming small, triangular tips with narrow scarious margin.
, formerly Sarcocornia pacifica'' The terminal or lateral
inflorescences are spike-like, made up of joint-like segments with tiny paired
cymes emerging from the joints. Each cyme consists of three (rarely five) flowers completely embedded between the bract and immersed in the fleshy tissue of the axis. The flowers of a cyme are arranged in a transverse row, the central flower separating the lateral flowers, with tissue of the axis between them. The hermaphrodite or unisexual flowers are more or less radially symmetric, with a
perianth of three or four fleshy
tepals connate nearly to the apex, one or two
stamens, and an ovary with two or three
stigmas. The perianth is persistent in fruit. The fruit wall (pericarp) is membranous. The vertical seed is ellipsoid, with light brown, membranous, hairy seed coat, the hairs can be strongly curved, hooked, or conic, straight or slightly curved. The seed contains no perisperm (feeding tissue). The basic
chromosome number is x=9. The species are diploid (18 chromosomes), tetraploid (36), hexaploid (54), or octoploid (72). ==Taxonomy==