Strumpfia includes one unusual species of small, ericoid shrubs adapted for dry seaside habitats. It is unusual in growth habit, ternate dry-adapted leaves, floral biology, variable corolla lobe arrangement in bud, and fused anthers. It has triangular interpetiolar stipules, subsessile narrowly elliptic leaves with small thick blades, axillary several-flowered inflorescences that do not extend much past the leaves, 5-merous small flowers, white to pink rotate corollas with the lobes imbricated in bud, filaments inserted nearly at the base of the corolla, anthers fused into an unusual tube, and white drupaceous fruits. Many details of the morphology and anatomy of Strumpfia were detailed by Igersheim (1993; here he corrected, for example Correll, 1982, who described and illustrated the leaves as opposite, and various authors who inaccurately reported the ovules as solitary in the locules). The shrubs have a low stature and stiff main stems often with congested growth, with numerous nodes that are closely set due to the very short internodes, and the nodes retain the dry scurfy persistent stipules. The leaf blades have two abaxial channels, one on each side of the costa, that have the stomata and are filled with dense tomentose pubescence. The inflorescences are cymose to racemiform or subcapitate with subsessile flowers. The flowers are basically 5-merous, but show some variation between 4- and 6-merous. The corolla lobes are quincuncial in bud, with two lobes external to the others, with variation in the arrangement of the internal lobes as illustrated by Igersheim (1993: 549, fig. 4). The ovaries are 2-locular with two ovules at the base of the septum in each locule, but each locule in turn has a partial septum in its upper part that separates the ovules. The fruits each contain a single pyrene, which is variously 2- to 4-locular depending on the number of seeds that develop. The seeds retain the obdurator, which becomes hardened. The pyrenes have a basal pore but no other evidence of pre-formed germination slits, though Igersheim (1993) noted a "weakly lignifiied endocarp area localised opposite the radicle apex" and suggested this area may function as a germination slit. 

The flowers of Strumpfia are unusual in being protogynous and having a true anther tube and a unique form of secondary pollen presentation. The details of the morphology and pollination were beautifully detailed by Igersheim (1993). In the flowers of Strumpfia the filaments are free, while the anthers are fused together by their main bodies; the tissue fusing them was posited to come from the connective by Igersheim (1993). These fused anthers appear to be unique in Rubiaceae (or a similar arrangement may be found in Acranthera). The anthers have short sterile apical appendages, and open by apical pores. At flowering the stigmas are exserted from the anther tube, spreading, and receptive, so the first phase of the flower is pistillate. Then the stigamas collapse or close and style becomes bent, so the stigmas are retracted and plug the top of the anther tube. Then the flat sterile anther appendages form a cup and the pollen is released into this cup. Igersheim (1993) did not observe pollination, but described the pollination mode as "pollen-deceit" and the reward in the flower as nectar. He described the anthers as opening by "apical pores" (p. 549, 557), and posited that the pollen is pushed out of the anthers and deposited as a glob in the bowl at their top by shrinkage of their tissues. Paudyal et al. (2014: 1201) described the anthers as opening by a single, common apical pore and buzz-pollinated; they did not discuss Igerheim's different conclusions nor his field observations of pollen deposited on top of the anthers, which is not the usual result of buzz-pollination.

Strumpfia was included in the tribe Chiococceae by Bremer & Eriksson (2009). This a tribe is well represented in the area where Strumpfia lives. Igersheim (1993) noted that several features of Strumpfia are unique in the Rubiaceae, and concluded that the unique features do not support separation of it as a monotypic tribe because they are unique autoapomorphies not synapomorphies that indicate relationships. Bremer & Eriksson (2009) agreed, and noted t the filaments inserted nearly at the base of the corolla is a rare character, and they considered that a synapomorphy of Chiococceae. Later Paudyal et al. (2014) found Strumpfia to be sister to the rest of Chiococceae based on molecular data, and separated it in its own tribe based on its several unique (autapomorphic) characters.

Strumpfia is similar in general aspect to several other ericoid Rubiaceae found in dry vegetation in the Antilles. Rachicallis differs in its yellow corollas and fruits that are loculicidal capsules. 

Author: C.M. Taylor
The content of this web page was last revised on 24 June 2021.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

• Igersheim, A. 1993. The character states of the Caribbean monotypic endemic Strumpfia (Rubiaceae). Nordic J. Bot. 13(5): 545–559.
• Paudyal, S.K., P. G. Delprete & T. J. Motley. 2014. Using molecular, morphological, and palynological evidence to transfer Strumpfia maritima to the monotypic tribe Strumpfieae (Cinchonoideae, Rubiaceae), and a re-delimitation of the tribe Chiococeeae. Syst. Bot. 39(4): 1197–1203.
• Bremer, B. & T. Eriksson. 2009. Time tree of Rubiaceae: Phylogeny and dating the family, subfamilies, and tribes. Int. J. Pl. Sci. 170(6): 766–793.
• Correll, D. S. & H. B. Correll. 1982. Fl. Bahama Archip. (1)–(50), 1–1692. J. Cramer, Vaduz.