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(Last Modified On 8/16/2013)
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(Last Modified On 8/16/2013)
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Species
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Torenia thouarsii (Cham. & Schlecht.) Kuntze
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PlaceOfPublication
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Rev. Gen. P1. 2: 468. 1891.
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Synonym
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Nortenia thouarsii Cham. & Schlecht., Linnaea 3: 18. 1928. Based on Torenia pedunculata Willd., ined. LECTOTYPE: Madagascar, Du Petit-Thouars (B-Willd. 11547, not seen, microfiche MO). Torenia parviflora Hamilt. in Wall. Cat. no. 3958 ex Benth., Scroph. Ind. 39. 1835, nomen illegit., notes Nortenia thouarsii Cham. & Schlecht., as syn. Torenia nortenia Steud., Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 2: 692. 1841. Based on Nortenia thouarsii Cham. & Schlecht. Lindernia thouarsii (Cham. & Schlecht.) Edwin, Phytologia 19: 361. 1970.
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Description
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Ascending herb to 20 cm tall, the stems branching freely, slender, drying sulcate, sparingly glandular on emerging, soon glabrescent; roots short and fibrous. Leaves opposite, lanceolate to ovate, apically obtuse or acute, basally obtuse, rounded or truncate, the margins crenate serrate with ca. 6 teeth on each side, mostly 1.5-2.5 cm long, 8-12 mm wide, the venation pinnate with ca. 3 pairs of strongly ascending arcuate veins on each side, glabrate but ciliolate with short, white trichomes at the margins and on the main veins beneath, obscurely glandular punctate beneath; petiole 2-7 mm long, the margins ciliate, especially at the base. Inflorescence 1-3 flowers in the leaf axil, sometimes geminate or ternate; peduncles glabrate, sulcate, exceeding the petioles, 5-15 mm long, the bracts basal, linear, 1-2 mm long, ciliate. Flowers with the calyx tubular, nar- rowly ovoid or pyriform, with narrow, ciliolate wing angles, with 5 short lobes, somewhat accrescent in fruit; corolla slightly exserted from the calyx, bluish, purplish or whitish, tubular, ca. 10 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes rotund, erose crenulate, ca. 2 mm across, bearded in the throat with stout whitish clavate hairs; stamens 4, the ventral pair inserted near the corolla mouth, the filaments genicu- late, with a sterile, linear extension from the point of insertion, ca. 1.5 mm free, the anthers somewhat reduced, the thecae separated by the connective, rotund, the dorsal pair inserted ca. 1 mm below the ventral pair, the filaments arching above the style and not geniculate, anthers 0.8 mm free, the 'thecae separated, divaricate, ca. 1.7 mm long, the connectives somewhat glandular, coherent holding the 2 anthers together; staminode inserted between and slightly above the fila- ments bearing a small globose antheroid; ovary narrowly conical, smooth, glabrous, the style straight, terete, the stigmas discoid, erose, flattened together, ca. 0.7 mm long. Capsule narrowly ovoid conical, scarcely exserted from the calyx, dehiscing septicidally to the base.
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Habit
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herb
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Distribution
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Torenia thouarsii is native to the Indian Ocean area but is naturalized in the New World tropics, occurring in Trinidad and from Peru to Costa Rica and the lower Oronoco in Venezuela.
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Note
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The elongate, tubular calyx and linear placenta are good recognition characters.
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Specimen
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BOCAS DEL TORO: Island potrero, Changuinola Valley, Dunlap 342 (PH, US).
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