Tropicos | Name - Mecardonia Ruiz & Pav.

Mecardonia Ruiz & Pav.

Flora Data (Last Modified On 8/15/2013)

Genus	Mecardonia Ruiz & Pav6n
PlaceOfPublication	Fl. Peruv. & Chil. Prodr. 95. 1794
Note	TYPE: M. ovata R. & P.
Synonym	Pagesia Raf., Fl. Ludov. 48. 1817. TYPE: P. leucantha Raf. = Mecardonia acuminata (Walt.) Small.
Description	Erect or creeping herbs, annual or perennial, much branched, mostly glabrous, sometimes blackening on drying, gland dotted, stems angled. Leaves opposite, mostly serrate, basally narrowed, the costa prominent; petiole indistinct. Inflo- rescence solitary axillary flowers, the pedicels elongate, subtended by 2 basal bracts, the bracts often leaflike. Flowers yellow or white, the calyx 5-lobed, mostly to the base, the lobes often equal in length, quite unequal in width, the outer sepals much wider; corolla yellow or white, campanulate and somewhat bilabiate, glabrous outside, bearded at the mouth within; stamens 4, didynamous, inserted on the corolla throat, the anthers with the 2 thecae held apart on short arms; stigma 2-lobed, lamelliform, the ovary 2-locular, many ovulate. Seeds numerous, oblong, reticulate.
Habit	herbs
Distribution	Mecardonia is a New World genus.
Note	North of Colombia it includes two well- marked species, while south of the Amazon there may be other species. It may be recognized by its gland-dotted foliage, by the pedicels basally bibracteate, and by the anthers separated by an armlike connective.