Tropicos | Name - Gaiadendron G. Don

Gaiadendron G. Don

Flora Data (Last Modified On 1/14/2013)

Genus	GAIADENDRON G. Don
PlaceOfPublication	Gen. Hist. 3:431. 1843
Reference	Eichler, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 5, pt. 2: 47. 1868 (as a subgenus of Phrygilanthus).
Description	Tall shrubs or small trees living upon earth, but parasitizing roots of other plants. Leaves opposite, more or less coriaceous, almost always minutely, but evidently, punctate beneath. Flowers conspicuous, colored, 4-8-merous, perfect, in ternations, these in racemes or corymbs; bractlets conspicuously developed, free, persistent; pedicels often unequal. Pollen grains 3-angled, the exine granulose. Ovary said to be 2-6-celled, but this scarcely convincing. Fruit baccate, the seeds albuminous.
Habit	shrubs trees
Note	A chiefly Andean genus of about 6 species. The following is the only known from Central America, where it is endemic. A careful re-examination of the ovary, living or fixed, will probably show that the genus does not essentially differ from Phrygilanthus and that it must be retained, as by Eichler, under the last mentioned name.