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Published In: Edinburgh Journal of Botany 60(3): 529. 2003[2004]. (14 Apr 2004) (Edinburgh J. Bot.) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 12/16/2016)
Acceptance : Accepted
Taxon Profile     (Last Modified On 12/16/2016)
Description: Deciduous geophyte with a globose corm rooting from below; corm axillary in origin, with tunics of reticulate fibers. Stem aerial, terete, smooth, sheathed below ground by membranous cataphylls. Leaves few, distichous; lower 2-3 cataphylls without blades; foliage leaves unifacial, more or less sword-shaped to lanceolate, without obvious midrib; blades lightly plicate, with a major vein at each fold. Inflorescence a spike, the flowers spirally arranged; bracts green, leaf-like, the inner much shorter than the outer, forked apically. Flowers actinomorphic, rotate, blue, presence of nectar unknown; perianth tube elongate-cylindric, straight, widening slightly towards apex; tepals nearly equal, spreading. Stamens symmetrically arranged, ascending; filaments inserted in mouth of tube; anthers exserted, linear; pollen 3-sulcate, exine perforate. Ovary smooth; style filiform, straight, exserted, dividing distally into 3 short, slender branches. Capsules unknown; seeds globose, slightly flattened at chalazal end; surface cells colliculate to more or less areolate; the surface lightly rugose. Basic chromosome number x = 10.
Etymology: the name is a compound derived from cyanos (blue) and ixia, a genus of the same subfamily of the Iridaceae which the flowers broadly resemble.
Revisionary account:
General Notes: a member of tribe Watsonieae, Cyanixia has the axillary corm develpment characteristic otf the tribe, but stands out in its 3-aperturate pollen grains, shared only with Zygotritonia. The shallowly pleated leaves match those of Zygotritonia and a second genus, Savannosiphon but the three genera differ markedly in the flowers and critical feature, the nature of the style branches, which are relatively long, but only notched apically. Molecular data have confirmed the immediate relationship of these genera and that they are correctly placed in Watsonieae.

 

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