English: Seaheath family.
Genera: 4: Franca, Frankenia, Hypericopsis, Anthobryum, Niederleinia; ± 70 species.
Use: ornamentals.
Botany: shrubs, subshrubs, herbs; halophytic, adapted to saline environments; xerophytic, adapted to dry environments; temperate and subtropical regions; leaves opposite, simple, small, heather-like, with salt-excreting glands in sunken pits; flowers small, either solitary or borne in various kinds of cyme, 4 to 7 sepals, joined at the base, 4 to 7 overlapping petals, narrowed at the base; stamens often arranged in two whorls of three each; ovary of 3, 1 to 4 carpels; fruit a capsule, enclosed in the persistent sepals; seeds have a central embryo with considerable starchy endosperm on each side.
TaxonomyFrankenia is the only genus in the
Frankeniaceae. Other generasuch as Anthobryum, Hypericopsis and Niederleinia, have been included in Frankenia due to phylogenetic studies.