Montia

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Ordo: Caryophyllales

Familia: Montiaceae
Genus: Montia
Species: M. angustifolia – M. australasica – M. calycina – M. campylostigma – M. drucei – M. erythrophylla – M. fontana – M. linearis – M. racemosa – M. rivularis – M. sessiliflora
Name

Montia L. Sp. Pl. 1: 87 (1753)

Type species: Montia fontana L. Sp. Pl. 1: 87–88. (1753)

Synonyms

Heterotypic
Claytoniella Jurtzev
Crunocallis Rydb.
Limnalsine Rydb.
Maxia O.Nilsson
Mona O.Nilsson
Montiastrum Rydb.
Naiocrene Rydb.
Neopaxia O.Nilsson
Paxia Ö. Nilsson

References

Linnaeus, C. 1753. Species Plantarum 1: 87.
Heenan, P.B. 2007. New combinations in Montia (Portulacaceae) New Zealand Journal of Botany 45 (2): 437–439. DOI: 10.1080/00288250709509725 Reference page.
Tropicos.org 2017. Montia. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2017 Apr. 2.
USDA, ARS, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Montia in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed: 09-Oct-10.

Vernacular names
English: Miner's Lettuce
suomi: Hetekaalit

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.[2] It is found worldwide, except in Asia.[1]

Montias are known from fossilized seeds recovered from sediments of the Pleistocene Tomales Formation and from a small paleoflora at San Bruno.[3][4] Further, Daniel Axelrod discussed Montia howellii as one of the biogeographically significant species comprising the Millerton paleoflora at Tomales.[5]

The genus name of Montia is in honour of Giuseppe Monti (1682–1760), an Italian chemist and botanist.[6] It was first described and published in Sp. Pl. on page 87 in 1753.[1]

Montia perfoliata, now Claytonia perfoliata, 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.[7]

Selected species:

Montia bostockii - Bostock's miner's lettuce
Montia chamissoi - water miner's lettuce, toadlily
Montia dichotoma - dwarf miner's lettuce
Montia diffusa - spreading miner's lettuce, branching montia
Montia fontana - annual water miner's lettuce, water-blinks
Montia howellii - Howell's miner's lettuce
Montia linearis - narrowleaf miner's lettuce
Montia parvifolia - littleleaf miner's lettuce

Montia fontana

Montia chamissoi

References

"Montia L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
Whitney, Stephen (1985). Western Forests (The Audubon Society Nature Guides). New York: Knopf. p. 545. ISBN 0-394-73127-1.
Mason, Herbert L. 1932. Pleistocene Flora from San Bruno. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 415, pages 25-44
Mason, Herbert L. 1934. Pleistocene Flora from the Tomales Formation. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 415, pages 81-179.
Axelrod, D. I. 1983. New Pleistocene Conifer Records, Coastal California. University of California Publications Geological Sciences Volume 127. Berkeley: University of California Press, 31 pp ISBN 0-520-09707-6
Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
Edible and Medicinal plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, ISBN 0-87842-359-1