frankenia
Botanical name: Frankenia
frankenia
Botanical name: Frankenia
Description
Frankenia comprises about 70–80 species of shrubs, subshrubs and herbaceous plants. Frankenia has a widespread but patchy distribution throughout temperate and subtropical areas of the world, being absent from the tropics. They have opposite, simple leaves, generally small and somewhat heather-like, and often with salt-excreting glands in sunken pits. Their flowers are small, either solitary or borne in various kinds of cyme. Each flower has four to seven sepals, joined at the base into a tube, and four to seven overlapping petals, narrowed at the base. The stamens are often arranged in two whorls of three each. The ovary is made up of one to four carpels (usually three). The fruit is a capsule, enclosed in the persistent sepals. The seeds have a central embryo with considerable starchy endosperm on each side. 
Species of frankenia
Sea heath
Perennial plant with branches up to 40 cm, extended and forming bushes. Linear sheets, margins rolled, opposite, sometimes with a white bark. Purple flowers to whitish, solitary or inflorescences at the end of the stems and branches.
Alkali seaheath
Alkali seaheath (Frankenia salina) is a fairly rare, low-growing, woody bush found near beaches, estuaries, and salt marshes. It has adapted to living in salty habitats by being able to excrete salt through specialized glands. The sun dries the liquid and leaves crystals of salt on the leaves. This is a useful groundcover for saline soils.
Hairy sea-heath
Hairy sea-heath is a perennial with lovely pink or violet blooms. It favors coastal habitats, growing on sandy and shingle terrain due to its tolerance to salt. The genus name, Frankenia, honors Jonah Franck, a Swedish botanist.
European sea heath
European sea heath (Frankenia pulverulenta) is both a halophytic (salt tolerant) and a xerophytic (aridity tolerant) species of shrub. These adaptations have made this heather-like plant a successful coastal species, hence the common name sea heath. However, efforts to introduce this plant to the inland saline environment of Salt Lake City, Utah have proved unsuccessful.
Scientific Classification
Phylum
Vascular plants Class
Dicotyledons Order
Pinks, cacti, and allies Family
Frankenias Genus
frankenia 
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