Beta is a genus in the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae. The best known member is the common beet, Beta vulgaris, but several other species are recognised. Almost all have common names containing the word "beet". Wild Beta species can be found throughout the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Mediterranean coastline, the Near East, and parts of Asia including India. Description This genus consists of annual, biennial, or perennial species, often with fleshy, thickened roots. The stems grow erect or procumbent. The alternate leaves are petiolate or sessile, with ovate-cordate to rhombic-cuneate leaf blades, their margins mostly entire, with obtuse apex. The inflorescences are long spikelike cymes or glomerules. Bracts can be leaflike (Beta macrorhiza) or very small, the upper half of the inflorescence often without bracts. The bisexual flowers consist of (3-) 5 basally connate perianth segments (either greenish, dorsally ridged and with hooded tips, or petaloid and whitish, yellowish, reddish, or greenish), 5 stamens, and a semi-inferior ovary with 2-3 (-5) stigmas. The fruit (utricle) is immersed in the swollen, hardened perianth base. The fruit is indehiscent or dehiscence eventually circumscissile. The horizontal seed is orbicular or reniform, with dark brown, smooth or glossy seed coat. The seed contains an annular embryo and copious perisperm. The base chromosome number is x = 9. Systematics and distribution The genus Beta was published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus. The type specimen is Beta vulgaris L. It is the type genus for subfamily Betoideae in family Amaranthaceae (s.l, including the Chenopodiaceae). According to phylogenetical research by Kadereit et al. (2006), the genus is classified into 2 sections with 7-8 species: Beta sect. Beta: the greenish tepals are dorsally ridged and have hooded tips. The tips are partly appressed to and mostly longer than the fruit. Wild plants are growing on shores and salty soils. The classification of this group has changed very often (comprising one to seven species, with five to 35 infraspecific taxa). Beta macrocarpa Guss.: occurring on Mediterranean coasts from the southern Iberian peninsula and northwestern Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Greece, Crete and the Aegean, to Israel. Beta vulgaris L., distributed from the Atlantic coasts of Western Europe and the Mediterranean region to India. Beta vulgaris subsp. adanensis (Pamukç. ex Aellen) Ford-Lloyd & J.T.Williams (Syn.: Beta adanensis Pamukç. ex Aellen): occurring in Greece, Cyprus, Israel, western Syria and Turkey. Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris (Syn.: Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla (L.) Arcang.,