Frankenia salina, often called alkali heath or alkali seaheath, is a perennial herb native to California, Nevada, Mexico and Chile. It is uncommon even in the region where it is most likely to be found, just north of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a squat flowering bush that forms a twiggy thicket near beaches and coastal salt marshes. Its common name refers to its preference for alkaline soils as a halophyte. It has the ability to excrete salt as an adaptation for living in saline habitats. The flowers are pink or fuchsia in color.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Frankenia salina has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens5
Marker genes4
eDNA detections3
Countries1
Marker genes sequenced
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★matK★rbcLa★ITS★ITS2
plant barcodefungal barcode
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type5 365 records
Wild obs. + sensor4 360
Museum / vouchered1 005
Origin
Native49
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO4 532 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy95% within 1 km
≤100 m 2 752≤1 km 367≤10 km 106>10 km 61
3 286 georeferenced · 1 074 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor4 360
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy63% within 1 km
≤100 m 91≤1 km 260≤10 km 194>10 km 16
561 georeferenced · 444 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence1 005
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions37 of 50 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
San Diego, US
196
Santa Barbara, US
139
Riverside, US
94
Claremont, US
63
San Luis Obispo, US
62
US
54
Davis, US
53
DOI/NPS, Little Rock Central High School National Historic Sitelocation not on record
31
Los Angeles, US
20
Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record
20
Irvine, US
19
ASUlocation not on record
14
Phoenix, US
12
Catalina Island Conservancylocation not on record
11
Severin-McDaniel Insect Collectionlocation not on record
11
CASlocation not on record
10
Ensenada, MX
9
Arcata, US
8
Arizona State University Biocollectionslocation not on record
7
Northridge, US
6
UChlocation not on record
5
Chicago, US
5
Austin, US
5
Santa Cruz, US
5
Calabar, NG
5
Wuzhou, CN
4
Valparaiso, CL
3
Flagstaff, US
3
University of Stellenboschlocation not on record
3
Bloomington, US
2
Austin, US
2
Boise, US
2
Jena Microbial Resource Collectionlocation not on record
2
Mexico City, MX
2
Edinburgh, GB
2
Logan, US
2
Chongqing Museumlocation not on record
2
Auckland, NZ
2
Long Beach, US
1
Albuquerque, US
1
Burlington, US
1
Oskarshamn, SE
1
Macomb, US
1
San Diego Natural History Museum, Herbariumlocation not on record
1
Saint Louis, US
1
Bronx, US
1
Pullman, US
1
San Diego Natural History Museumlocation not on record
1
San Jose, US
1
La Paz, MX
1
50 institutions · 907 of 1 005 vouchered records shown · 98 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA3 detections
Where the DNA of Frankenia salina was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found3
Studies independent surveys1
Countries1
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 3 detections have coordinates
Open the map1 country0
Wetland vegetation with Persicaria amphibia,…
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median16.5 °C 15.3–17.6
Seasonal swing summer↔winter8.70 °C
Max temp (day)20.1 °C 19.8–20.3
Min temp (night)13.3 °C 10.9–15.7
Precipitation21.4 mm/mo 15.9–26.8
Air humidity60.7 % 60.0–61.4
Moisture balance-85.3 mm/mo -87.7–-82.8
Vapour deficit740 Pa 700–779
Wind speed2.20 m/s 1.70–2.70
Cloud cover24.7 % 20.3–29.1
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 2 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation2 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility5 365 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI3 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics5 specimens↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗