Citation: A.J. Scott, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 75:366 (1978).

Derivation: Greek sarx, flesh; Latin cornu, horn.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Samphires.

Description:
Perennial herbs or subshrubs, glabrous, seemingly leafless; branches made up of cylindrical internodes (articles) that are cup-shaped or 2-lobed at the apex, succulent; sclereids usually present in the palisade tissue.

Inflorescence a terminal spike-like thyrse consisting of 3-12-flowered cymes sessile in the axils of the bracts; bracts united in opposite pairs; flowers apparently embedded in the spongy mesophyll of the succulent axis, bisexual or unisexual by abortion or the plants dioecious; perianth succulent, of fused segments; apex truncate, exposed, the orifice a vertical slit; lobes 3, 2 lateral and a small semicircular outer adaxial lobe; stamens 2, on the abaxial and adaxial side of the ovary.

Fruiting perianth spongy; pericarp membranous, eventually separating from the axis just above the base; seed ovate 'to orbicular; testa weak, papillose or with slender hairs; embryo horseshoe-shaped; albumen absent.

Distribution:  A cosmopolitan genus of about 16 species 3 of which are native to Australia. (P. G. Wilson (1980) Nuytsia 3:70-77.)

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Seed papillose with short rounded hairs	S. blackiana 1.
1. Seed with slender acuminate (sometimes hooked) hairs	S. quinqueflora 2.

Author: Not yet available