|
(Last Modified On 5/10/2013)
|
|
|
|
(Last Modified On 5/10/2013)
|
|
Genus
|
Phyla Lour.
|
|
PlaceOfPublication
|
Fl. Cochinch., ed. 1. 66. 1790.
|
|
Synonym
|
Zapania Scop. ex A. L. Juss., Ann. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. 7: 72. 1806. Platonia Raf., Med. Repos. 5: 352. 180.8. Diototheca Raf., Fl. Ludov. 74. 1817. Bertolonia Raf., Amer. Monthly Mag. & Crit. Rev. 2: 267. 1818. Blairia Gaertn. apud Steud., Nom. Bot., ed. 1. 111. 1821. Piarimula Raf., Fl. Tellur. 2: 102. 1836. Pilopus Raf., loc. cit. 2: 102. 1836. Panope Raf., loc. cit. 2: 103. 1836. Cryptocalyx Benth., Ann. Nat. Hist., Ser. 1. 2: 446. 1839.
|
|
Description
|
Perennial mostly procumbent or creeping herbs, stems trailing or ascending, sometimes slightly woody basally, more or less incanous throughout with ap- pressed-strigose, rarely subglabrous malpighian (medifixed) trichomes. Leaves decussate-opposite, often fleshy, flat or pinnately plicatulate. Inflorescences spicate, axillary, cylindric, densely many-flowered, usually greatly elongate in fruit, solitary, paired, or ternate, never aggregated into corymbs or panicles. Flotvers small, sessile, borne singly in the axils of small cuneate-obovate or flabel- liform bractlets, not at all 4-ranked; calyx small, membranous, ovoid-campanulate or compressed and 2-carinate or winged, the rim 2- or 4-fid or 4-dentate; corolla irregular, the tube straight or incurved, slender, slightly exserted from the calyx, equal in diameter throughout or slightly ampliate above, the limb oblique, spread- ing, somewhat 2-lipped, 4-parted, the lobes broad, often retuse apically, the posterior entire, emarginate, or bifid to about the middle, the laterals exterior, the anterior often larger; stamens 4, didynamous, included or slightly exserted, the anthers unappendaged; ovary 2-loculed, the ovules 1 per locule, the stigma incrassate, oblique or recurved. Fruit small, dry, included by the calyx and sometimes adnate to it, dividing into 2 pyrenes at maturity, the pericarp leathery and hard, the exocarp membranous and rarely distinct from the pyrenes.
|
|
Habit
|
herbs
|
|
Distribution
|
A difficult genus of about 20 species and subspecific entities, widely dis- tributed in subtropical and tropical America, with one or two in the warmer parts of the Old World. Some forms are widely cultivated for lawns or as soil- binders.
|
|
Key
|
a. Peduncles usually much shorter than the flowering spikes; spikes often 4 or more at each node ...... 1. P. betulaefolia aa. Peduncles usually much longer than the flowering spikes; spikes 1 or 2 at a node. b. Leaf-blades widest below the middle, mostly ovate or oval. c. Stems woody basally; trichomes on upper leaf-surface bulbous-based; leaf-blades mostly scabrous above, plainly acute apically ...... 2. P. scaberrima cc. Stems herbaceous throughout; trichomes on upper leaf-surface appressed-stri- gose, not bulbous-based; leaf-blades not scabrous above, mostly obtuse apically. d. Mature leaves mostly to 7.5 cm long and 2 cm wide ...... 3. P. strigulosa var. strigulosa dd. Mature leaves mostly less than 1.5 cm long and to 1 cm wide ...... 3a. P. strigulosa var. sericea bb. Leaf-blades widest above the middle, mostly cuneate-obovate, spatulate, or narrowly oblanceolate. e. Leaves uniformly narrow-elongate, to 5.5 cm long and 4-10 mm wide ...... 4a. P. nodiflora var. longifolia ee. Leaves cuneate-spatulate, spatulate, obovate, or rhomboid, mostly 1-3 cm long. f. Teeth on leaf-blades mostly large and coarse, more or less conspicuously divergent ...... 5. P. incisa ff. Teeth on leaf-blades mostly small and antrorsely appressed, usually not con- spicuously divergent ...... 4. P. nodiflora var. nodiflora
|
|
Tag
|
|
|
|
Project Name
|
|
Tag
|
|
|
|