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Published In: Flora 36(45): 718. 1853. (7 Dec 1853) (Flora) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 12/8/2022)
Acceptance : Accepted
Note : Tribe Dialypetalantheae
Project Data     (Last Modified On 12/8/2022)
Notes:

Pogonopus includes three species of shrubs and small trees with showy inflorescences and flowers. This Neotropical genus is characterized by elliptic petiolate leaves, short interpetiolar triangular stipules, terminal cymose inflorescences with generally rather well developed axes and pedicels; 5-merous flowers with short calyx lobes and petaloid calycophylls; tubular pink to red corollas with the short lobes valvate-reduplicate in bud; and subglobose loculicidal capsules with numerous small angled seeds. This genus was studied and illustrated in detail by Delprete (1999). The leaves of Pogonopus are rather thin-textured, and the stems and capsules characteristically lenticellate. The oldest flower or flowers in each cyme bear an ovate to elliptic, red or pink calycophyll with a well developed stipe. The corollas have a ring of dense pubescence near or just below the middle and the tubes often gently curved; both of these features are common in flowers pollinated by hummingbirds. The valvate-reduplicate corolla lobes produce a star-like structure on the top of the flower bud. The anthers and stigmas are exserted from the corolla. The calycophylls sometimes persist as the fruits develop.

The bark of Pogonopus is used locally as an antimalarial, and the plants have thus been more studied than many other genera of Rubiaceae; this has not given us a more extensive knowledge of their biology and systematics than for other Rubiaceae, but has resulted in these three species having received a number of scientific names. The biogeography of Pogonopus is notable, with the three species allopatric and their ranges separated by the Amazon river. Pogonopus was long treated as having two species, one in the northern Neotropics and the other in the southern part of this region, but Delprete (1999) demonstrated that two species are found in the northern part of the region.

Pogonopus is generally similar to several species of Rustia, but these have pellucid glands in the leaves and anthers that are poricidal (vs. opening by longitudinal slits in Pogonopus and most other Rubiaceae). Pogonopus is also similar to the warm temperate genus Pinckneya of the southeastern USA, which has white to pink corollas with the lobes valvate in bud. Pogonopus is often not recognized without inflorescences. Pogonopus and Coutarea are similar to each other when sterile, and are often found in similar habitats. In a molecular systematic study Kainulainen et al. (2010; as Condamineeae) found Pogonopus to belong to their Tribe Dialypetalantheae, and related to Picardaea.

Author: C.M. Taylor
The content of this web page was last revised on 8 December 2022.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

Distribution: Seasonal to perhaps humid vegetation at 50-2800 m, southern Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela, and in Peru, Bolivia, western Brazil, and northern Argentina.
References:

 

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Shrubs and small trees, unarmed, terrestrial, without raphides in the tissues. Leaves opposite, petiolate, with tertiary and quaternary venation not lineolate, without or rarely with pubescent domatia; stipules persistent, interpetiolar, triangular, imbricated or vvalvate in bud. Inflorescences terminal, cymose to thyrsiform, multiflowered, pedunculate, bracteate. Flowers pedicellate, bisexual, homosylous, protandrous,somewhat large and showy, apparently fragrant and apparently diurnal; hypanthium obovoid to turbinate; calyx limb reduced or shortly developed and 5-lobed, on some flowers with obovate, pink to red, petaloid calycophylls; corolla tubular with weak basal swelling, pink, internally glabrous except with pilosulous ring near base, lobes 5, triangular to ovate, in bud valvate-reduplicate, without appendage; stamens 5, inserted near base of corolla tube, anthers narrowly ellipsoid, dorsifixed, opening by longitudinal slits, tardily sometimes sagittate, without appendage; ovary 2-locular, ovules numerous in each locule on axile placentas, stigmas 2, ellipsoid to linear, exserted. Fruit capsular, ellipsoid to obovoid and laterallly flattened, loculicidally dehiscent from apex, woody, lenticellate, with calyx limb persistent; seeds numerous, irregularly 3--5-angled, flattened, small (ca. 0.5 mm), seed surface foveolate. .

 

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1 Corolla tube 28-46 mm long, externally glabrous or puberulous; capsules 7-10 mm long; plants found in Peru, western Brazil, Bolivia, and northern Argentina. Pogonopus tubulosus
+ Corolla tube 10-28 mm long, externally puberulous to hirsute or pilosulous; capsules 6-8 mm long; plants found in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela. (2)
2 (1) Corolla with tube cylindrical and lobes erect to weakly spreading; plants found in Mexico, Central America, and western to central Colombia. Pogonopus exsertus
+ Corolla with tube weakly funnelform and lobes spreading; plants found in northern Colombia and Venezuela. Pogonopus speciosus
 

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Key to Species of Pogonopus

1. Corolla tube 28-46 mm long, externally glabrous or puberulous; capsules 7-10 mm long; plants found in Peru, western Brazil, Bolivia, and northern Argentina........Pogonopus tubulosus

1'. Corolla tube 10-28 mm long, externally puberulous to hirsute or pilosulous; capsules 6-8 mm long; plants found in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela.

     2. Corolla with tube cylindrical and lobes erect to weakly spreading; plants found in Mexico, Central America, and western to central Colombia.....Pogonopus exertus

     2'. Corolla with tube weakly funnelform and lobes spreading; plants found in northern Colombia and Venezuela......Pogonopus speciosus

 
 
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