Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris

Ghazanfar, S. A. & Edmondson, J. R (Eds). (2016) Flora of Iraq, Volume 5 Part 1: Elatinaceae to Sphenocleaceae.

Morphology General Habit

Annual, biennial or perennial with an erect to decumbent or procumbent strongly grooved and ridged stem 20–120 cm (more in luxuriant or cultivated forms), simple to much-branched, glabrous or rarely with scattered multicellular hairs

Morphology Roots

Root slender to thick and fleshy

Morphology Leaves

Basal leaves with the lamina cordate-ovate to cuneate-rhomboid, vary variable in size and colour, ± long-petiolate with lamina narrowly decurrent along petiole; inflorescence leaves very small and bract-like or remaining larger than the subtended flower or flower-clusters

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence dense to lax (increasingly so below in fruit)

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers solitary or in clusters of up to 8 which fall as a unit in fruit

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Tepal

Tepals broadly deltoid to linear- oblong, ± concave and cucullate, incurved, 1.5–3(–5) mm in flower, narrowly to broadly pale-margined, strongly to feebly carinate dorsally, ± accrescent in fruit and ± hardening and saccate at base or not

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Receptacle

Receptacle indurate below

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Stigma

Stigma 0.5 mm

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds lenticular, horizontal, 2–2.5 mm, black, reticulate, ± immersed in the indurate receptacle, with a thinner apical pericarp.

Ecology

Usually a weed of cultivation, especially where irrigated and the soil sometimes noted as ± saline, also in sandy loam bottom land, along riverbanks, on rocky ground, along roadsides and on saline alluvial soil by a lake; alt. 2–260 m;

Phenology

Flowering: Jan.–May (one specimen Flowering: in Nov.), fruiting: Apr.–May.

Distribution

Iraq: Widespread in the Lower Mesopotamian Plain, rare in the foothills and desert: native on the coasts of S and W Europe, Macaronesia, the Mediterranean area, and in coastal regions and inland saline areas of SW Asia eastwards to NW India. Cultivated and occasionally naturalised or spontaneous elsewhere.