|
(Last Modified On 1/25/2013)
|
|
|
|
(Last Modified On 1/25/2013)
|
|
Genus
|
PLEUROPETALUM Hook. f.
|
|
PlaceOfPublication
|
Proc. Linn. Soc. 1:278
|
|
Reference
|
Lond. Jour. Bot. 5: 108. 1846.
|
|
Synonym
|
Allochlamys Moq. in DC. Prodr. 132:463. 1849. Melanocarpum Hook. f. in Benth. & Hook. Gen. 3:24. 1880.
|
|
Description
|
Flowers perfect, subsessile to pedicellate, unibracteate and bibracteolate. Sepals 5, discrete, hypogynous, concave, subequal, many-ribbed. Petals absent. Stamens 5-8, hypogynous, connate about half their length forming an exappendiculate tube shorter than the ovary; filaments flattened; anthers 4-locellate, introrse, medially attached. Ovary subglobose, 1-locular, multi-ovulate; ovules cam- pylotropous; funicles flattened or filiform, exarillate, with free central placenta- tion; style 1; stigmata mostly 3-6, at anthesis scarcely distinguishable, ultimately reflexed. Fruits at first baccate, later developing into circumscissile or irregularly dehiscent capsules; seeds cochleate-orbiculate, black, lustrous, reticulate. Glabrate sparingly branched erect suffruticose herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate, entire, petiolate, lanceolate to rhombic-ovate, glabrous to minutely strigillose, deciduous. Inflorescences of terminal and axillary racemes, panicles or corymbs, with or without foliar leaves.
|
|
Distribution
|
Inhabiting moist forests of low elevations, this genus, of perhaps three species, ranges from Jalisco to Peru and the Galapagos Islands. The type species, P. darwinii Hook. f., endemic to the Galapagos Islands, was reluctantly assigned to the Portulacaceae by Bentham & Hooker (Gen. 1:157. 1862.). The two other species of this economically unimportant genus are both found in Panama.
|
|
Key
|
a. Inflorescence corymbose; sepals with 7-17 ribs; stigmata mostly 3-4; capsule irregularly dehiscent; seeds 1.5-2.2 mm. broad.................. 1. P. SPRUCES aa. Inflorescence racemose or paniculate; sepals with 19-27 ribs; stigmiata mostly 5-7; capsule circumscissile; seeds 1-1.5 mm. broad.... 2. P. PLETOGYNUMi
|
|
Tag
|
|
|
|
Project Name
|
|
Tag
|
|
|
|