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(Last Modified On 8/16/2013)
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(Last Modified On 8/16/2013)
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Genus
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Torenia L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. P1. 619. 1753
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Note
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TYPE: T. asiatica L.
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Synonym
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Nortenia Thouars, Gen. Nov. Madag. 9. 1808. LECTOTYPE: N. thouarsii Cham. & Schlecht. = Torenia thouarsii (Cham. & Schlecht.) Kuntze.
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Description
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Erect or decumbent herbs, freely branching, the stems angled and sulcate, sometimes pubescent. Leaves opposite, serrate or crenate, petiolate, pinnately veined. Inflorescences 1-3 flowers in a leaf axil, sometimes geminate or ternate, the pedicel angled, subtended by a basal, linear bract. Flowers with the calyx united to near the top, wing angled, sometimes conspicuously so, somewhat accrescent in fruit, enclosing the capsule, the corolla campanulate to tubular salverform, the upper lip erect, the lower (closed) lip with 3 rotund lobes, bearded in the throat, stamens 4 in 2 pairs, the filaments inserted near the top of the tube, the dorsal pair arching upwards and holding the anthers above the stigma and the ventral pair, the anthers alike or the dorsal pair reduced, the connectives coherent in pairs, the thecae oblong to linear, divaricate, held apart by the connectives, a staminode present; ovary smooth, the style straight, the stigmas flattened together. Capsule dehiscing septicidally to the base, the placenta linear, conspicuously winged by the stramineous septum; seeds globose, yellow, tuberculate.
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Habit
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herbs
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Distribution
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Torenia is an Old World genus of perhaps 50 species.
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Note
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The species treated here are introduced. Several species other than T. fournieri are cultivated for ornament and may appear from time to time in Panamanian gardens. Torenia is closely allied to Lindernia and Stemodia, but has been kept separate by Old World workers, e.g., Philcox (1968). It differs from Stemodia in its calyx shape and its placental septum, and from Lindernia in a number of small details. Although the seeds are pitted or tuberculate in Torenia and some species of Lindernia and Stemodia, the pitting does not appear to be of the same kind.
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Key
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a. Calyx becoming more than 5 mm wide (including wings); corolla showy, the limb more than 8 mm across, the tube conspicuously exserted from the calyx ...... 1. T. foumieri aa. Calyx less than 5 mm wide; corolla small, the limb less than 6 mm across; the tube scarcely exserted from the calyx ...... 2. T. thouarsii
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