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(Last Modified On 7/24/2013)
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(Last Modified On 7/24/2013)
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Genus
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Sphyrospermum Poepp. & Endlich
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PlaceOfPublication
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Nov. Gen. Sp. PI. 1: 4. 1835.
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Note
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LECTOTYPE: Sphyrospermum buxifolium Poeppig & Endlicher.
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Synonym
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Sophoclesia Klotzsch, Linnaea 24: 15, 29. 1851.
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Description
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Slender, often straggly, epiphytic or terrestrial shrubs frequently with pendent branches. Leaves usually small and obscurely nerved, coriaceous, subsessile. Inflorescences usually few, solitary or rarely paired flowers in the axils of the leaves; pedicels slender, cernuous, distally swollen; bracteoles 2, deciduous. Flowers with the hypanthia continuous with the pedicel, subglobose or obconic, the calyx limb suberect, the lobes 4-5; corolla cylindric to campanulate, 4-5- lobed; stamens usually as many or twice as many as the corolla lobes, equal or alternately slightly unequal, the filaments slender, ligulate, the anthers in- serted dorsally near the base, membranous, smooth, usually shorter than the filament, the 2 distinct tubules as long as or longer than the locules, opening by oval, introrse clefts; stigma truncate, the style filiform, about as long as the corolla. Fruit a subglobose or ellipsoid, berry with a smooth or pubescent, brittle pericarp, dry but becoming succulent at maturity, topped by the persistent calyx limb and lobes, 4-5 loculed, the partitions soon decaying; ovules numerous, axile but often appearing central or even basal; seeds elongate, striate, the green embryo visible through the endosperm.
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Habit
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shrubs
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Note
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Sphyrospermum is a troublesome genus of perhaps 20 species.
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Distribution
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ranges from southern Mexico and Haiti to Trinidad and French Guiana, through the high- lands of Central America and the Andes of South America to Bolivia.
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Reference
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Smith, A. C. 1933. The genera Sphyrospermum and Disterigrn. Brittonia 1: 203-232.
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Key
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a. Hypanthia pilosulose, strigillose to glabrous or nearly so, the trichornes when pres- ent, always slenderly based. b. Corolla 4 mm long or longer; hypanthium often moderately to densely pilosu- lose or puberulous as well as glandularly strigillose. c. Leaves suborbicular to oblong ovate, (7-)9-15(-18) mm long; stamens 4 ...... 1. S. buxifolium cc. Leaves ovate to lance ovate, (15-) 20-50 mm long; stamens 4-10, 7 (-70) ...... 2. S. cordifolium bb. Corolla less than 2.5 mm long; hypanthiurn minutely strigillose but never pilo- sulose or puberulous ......3. S. standleyi aa. Hypanthia densely tuberculate, the modified trichomes with greatly swollen bases ...... 4. S. tuberculatum
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