Atriplex are C-plants, with a characteristic leaf anatomy (kranz anatomy). The genus "Atriplex" is distributed nearly worldwide from subtropical to temperate and to subarctic regions. Most species-rich are Australia, North America, South America and Eurasia. Many species are halophytes and are adapted to dry environments with salty soils. The genus evolved in Middle Miocene, the C-photosynthesis pathway developed about 14.1-10.9 million years ago, when the climate became increasingly dry. The genus diversified rapidly and spread over the continents. The C"Atriplex" colonized North America probably from Eurasia during the Middle/Late Miocene, about 9.8-8.8 million years ago, and later spread to South America.
Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley edges. Waimangu is home to a wide range of micro-organisms and plants adapted to the different thermal conditions in the valley, from bacteria surviving temperatures of and algae growing in acidity levels of pH 3.8 to mosses and prostrate kanuka growing in soil temperatures up to . All vegetation in the valley originates from no earlier than the 1890s, when plants started re-populating the area in a natural succession following the complete destruction of any plant life by the 1886 Mount Tarawera eruption. Over the past 120 years, plant life in the Waimangu Valley has re-established itself via dispersion of