Beta vulgaris subsp. rapacea (Koch) Döll).: all cultivated beets (chard, beetroot), sugar beet, and mangelwurzel) belong to this subspecies. Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, Sea beet, the wild ancestor of all cultivated beets. Its distribution area reaches from the coasts of Western Europe and the Mediterranean Sea to the Near and Middle East and to India. Beta patula Aiton, endemic on Madeira, Critically Endangered. Beta sect. Corollinae Ulbr. (including Beta Sect. Nanae Ulbr.): the corolla-like tepals are whitish, yellowish, reddish, or greenish. Occurring from the eastern Mediterranean area to Southwest Asia. Beta lomatogona Fisch. & C.A.Meyer: perennial, occurring from Turkey and Transcaucasia to the northwestern Iran, on rocky slopes and in cultivated places. Beta macrorhiza Stev.: perennial, occurring from central Turkey to northwestern Iran, at rocky slopes and edges of fields. Beta corolliflora Zosimovic ex Buttler: perennial, from eastern Turkey to northwestern Iran, at rocky slopes and edges of fields. Beta trigyna Waldst. & Kit.: perennial, occurring from the Balcan peninsula, Ukraine, Turkey and Caucasia to Iran. Naturalized in the British Islands and France. Beta nana Boiss. & Heldr.: perennial, endemic to the mountains of Greece. Excluded species: Beta patellaris Moq., Beta procumbens C.Sm. ex Hornem., and Beta webbiana Moq. are treated as an own genus, Patellifolia A.J.Scott, Ford-Lloyd & J.T.Williams. Evolution The differentiation between Beta and Patellifolia probably occurred early in the Late Oligocene. The Mediterranean ancestors of Beta began to differentiate around seven million years ago (Messinian Age of the Late Miocene). They evolved into two well-differentiated clades on each side of the Mediterranean: the western wild beets Beta vulgaris, Beta macrocarpa, and Beta patula, occurring in coastal and ruderal habitats; and the easternmost wild beets Beta corolliflora, Beta nana and Beta trigyna, occurring in continental mountainous zones. During the Messinian salinity crisis (5.96 to 5.33 million years ago) the Mediterranean Sea partly desiccated and left widespread salt marshes and halophytic habitats. After the sea had flooded back, the marshes were fragmented and taxa became isolated. Subsequent climatic changes led to further diversification. The western wild beets later colonized the Macaronesian Islands during the Pleistocene, probably by adaptations of the diaspores for sea dispersal (thalassochory). On these islands, the diversification was quite recent, and seems to be complicated by events of hybridization and gene flow. Uses Beet (Beta vulgaris) has an immense economic importance as sugar crop (Sugar beet), and a great importance as a vegetable (Chard, Beetroot), and