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Published In: Anales del instituto de Biología de la Universidad Nacional de México 13: 37. 1942. (20 Jan 1942) (Anales Inst. Biol. Univ. Nac. México) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 3/18/2024)
Acceptance : Accepted
Note : Tribe Hillieae
Project Data     (Last Modified On 4/3/2024)
Notes:

Balmea Martínez includes one species of terrestrial or more often epiphytic shrubs and small trees, which are found in the mountains of southern Mexico and Guatemala in pine-oak and cloud forests. Balmea can be recognized by its flattened interpetiolar stipules; its ovate laves on rather long flexuous petioles; its drooping terminal inflorescences with several showy flowers arranged in a loose cyme; the flowers with long narrow calyx lobes and a red to dark violet corolla; and its cylindrical woody capsules with septicidal dehiscence and winged flattened seeds. The flowers are homostylous, and perhaps pollinated by hummingbirds. The seeds are wind-dispersed. Mejía-González et al. (2022) noted that the wood of Balmea is locally used for construction and artesanal itrems, and its single species has been assessed by IUCN as Endangered and is included in CITES Appendix I.  

D'Hondt et al. (2004) studied and illustrated the pollen of Balmea stormiae in detail. Mejía-González et al. (2022) studied population distribution and genetic diversity of this spedies in southwestern Mexico where this species is in decline, in Jalisco and Michoacán. They found high genetic differentiation between populations of the two states, and postulated that seed dispersal is probably limited in this species. They also compared their results with the estimated ages of parts of the landscape, and found that the Michoacán populations with more genetic diversity are found on older lava flows. 

Balmea is similar to Cosmibuena, however Cosmibuena has white, nocturnal flowers and larger stipules. Balmea is also similar to Hillia, but Hillia differs in its seeds with a tuft of silky filaments 1-3 cm long attached at the apical end and its flowers that are solitary or sometimes in groups of three. Balmea has not yet been studied extensively,.  Based on a detailed morphological analysis, Andersson (1995) included Balmea in an expanded tribe Hillieae, and subsequent molecular work has supported this classification (Manns & Bremer 2010; Ball et al., in prep.).

Authors: D.H. Lorence & C.M. Taylor. The content of this web page was last revised on 3 Aprl 2024.
Lorence web page http://ntbg.org/about/staff.php#84
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

Distribution:

One neotropical species in humid vegetation at 1100-2100 m, southern Mexico (Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca), El Salvador, and Guatemala.

References:

 

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Shrubs and trees, unarmed, terrestrial or usually epiphytic, without raphides in the tissues, generally succulent, sometimes with resinous buds, sometimes deciduous. Leaves opposite, petiolate entire, with venation not lineolate, without domatia; stipules interpetiolar and shortly intrapetiolar, triangular to ovate, erect, caducous. Inflorescences terminal, corymbiform-cymose, 9-14-flowered, pedunculate, the bracts reduced and caducous. Flowers pedicellate, bisexual, homostylous, probably protandrous, large, showy; hypanthium ellipsoid; calyx limb developed, 4--5-lobed to the base, without calycophylls; corolla salverform or somewhat funnelform, red to dark violet, glabrous, lobes 4--5, convolute in bud, without appendices; stamens 5, inserted in corolla tube, anthers narrowly oblong, dorsifixed near base, included, opening by longitudinal slits, without appendages; ovary 2-locular, ovules numerous in each locule, on axile placentas, stigma 1, shortly bilobed, partially exserted. Fruits capsular, obconic or narrowly ovoid to narowly cylindrical, shortly loculicidal at the apex then deeply septicidal, woody, smooth, valves 2 but capsules 4-lobed at top, with calyx limb deciduous; seeds numerous, laterally flattened, fusiform, marginally winged and entire to erose.

 
 
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