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(Last Modified On 11/29/2012)
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(Last Modified On 11/29/2012)
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Genus
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LOASA Adans.
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Synonym
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LOASA Adans. Fam. 2:501. 1763. Ortiga Neck. Elemn. 2:400. 1790. H-uidobria C. Gay, Fl. Chil. 2:43 8. 1846.
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Description
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Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs, erect or sprawling, rarely twining, beset in nearly all parts with scabrous, stinging hairs. Leaves alternate or opposite, variously incised and lobed. Inflorescence cymose, terminal or lateral, occasionally reduced to a solitary flower. Flowers mediocre to large, usually 5-merous, rarely 6- to 7-merous; sepals foliaceous, open in aestivation; petals valvate or imbricate, somewhat clawed; stamens numerous, in antepetalous clusters, the filaments elon- gate, united at the base; staminodia united into conspicuous more or less saccate antesepalous petaloid scales; ovary inferior, i-celled, with usually numerous ovules borne upon 3-5 parietal placentas, the style usually shortly columnar, the stigma obscurely divided. Fruit a 3- to 5-valved capsule.
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Habit
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herbs
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Distribution
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75-100 species, extending from Mexico to Patagonia, but particularly numerous in Peru and Chile. The Loasas sting probably more painfully than any nettle, and the quality sometimes is not completely lost from herbarium specimens.
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Key
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a. Leaves pinnate or very deeply pinnatifid above; flowers mediocre, about 2.5 cm. in diameter, the petals white........................................................... 1. L. RUDIS aa. Leaves only moderately lobed and incised. b. Leaves somewhat longer than broad, somewhat pinnately lobed; flowers about 5 cm. in diameter, the petals pale green ........................... 2. L. GRANDIS bb. Leaves about as long as broad, somewhat palmately lobcd; flowers about 15 cm. in diameter, the petals bright orange ............................... 3. L. SPECIOSA
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