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Alchemilla decurrens

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Rosaceae

Trees , shrubs , or herbs, deciduous or evergreen . Stems erect , scandent , arching , prostrate , or creeping , armed or unarmed . Buds usually with several exposed scales , sometimes with only 2. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, simple or compound ; stipules paired , free or adnate to petiole , rarely absent, persistent or deciduous; petiole usually 2-glandular apically; leaf blade often serrate at margin , rarely entire. Inflorescences various, from single flowers to umbellate , corymbose , racemose or cymose-paniculate. Flowers usually actinomorphic , bisexual , rarely unisexual and then plants dioecious. Hypanthium (formed from basal parts of sepals, petals, and stamens) free from or adnate to ovary, short or elongate . Sepals usually 5, rarely fewer or more, imbricate; epicalyx segments sometimes also present. Petals as many as sepals, inserted below margin of disk, free, imbricate, sometimes absent. Disk lining hypanthium, usually entire, rarely lobed . Stamens usually numerous , rarely few, always in a complete ring at margin of or above disk; filaments usually free, very rarely connate ; anthers small, didymous , rarely elongate, 2-locular. Carpels 1 to many, free, or ± connate and then adnate to inner surface of cupular receptacle; ovary inferior, semi-inferior, or superior; ovules usually 2 in each carpel, rarely 1 or several, anatropous , superposed . Styles as many as carpels, terminal , lateral , or basal, free or sometimes connate. Fruit a follicle, pome, achene, or drupe, rarely a capsule, naked or enclosed in persistent hypanthium and sometimes also by sepals. Seeds erect or pendulous, sometimes winged , usually exalbuminous , very rarely with thin endosperm; cotyledons mostly fleshy and convex abaxially, rarely folded or convolute.

Between 95 and 125 genera and 2825-3500 species: cosmopolitan , mostly in N temperate zone; 55 genera (two endemic) and 950 species (546 endemic) in China.

Many plants of this family are of economic importance and contribute to people s livelihoods. The Rosaceae contain a great number of fruit trees of temperate regions . The fruits contain vitamins, acids, and sugars and can be used both raw and for making preserves, jam, jelly, candy, various drinks, wine, vinegar, etc. The dried fruits of the genera

Amygdalus and Armeniaca are of high commercial value. Some plants in the genus Rosa containing essential oils or with a high vitamin content are used in industry . Rosaceae wood is used for making various articles, stems and roots are used for making tannin extract, and young leaves are used as a substitute for tea. Numerous species are used for medical purposes or are cultivated as ornamentals .

The Rosaceae are very well represented in China, with great economic and scientific importance. The Co-chairs of the Editorial Committee (Wu and Raven) here note that the patterns of relationship are complex and the group is taxonomically difficult. [1]

Genus Alchemilla

Herbs perennial (rarely annual ), with woody rhizome. Stems decumbent to erect . Leaves stipulate , long petiolate ; stipules adnate to sheathing petiole ; leaf blade simple , ± orbicular , margin lobed , digitate, or palmately parted . Inflorescences usually dense corymbs, rarely lax cymes or a solitary flower, ebracteate . Flowers very small, bisexual . Hypanthium urceolate , persistent , with constricted throat . Sepals 4(or 5), valvate ; epicalyx segments 4(or 5), alternating with sepals. Petals absent. Disk lining hypanthium, margin thickened. Stamens (1-) 4; filaments free , short. Carpel 1(-4), sessile or substipitate, free; ovule ascending from base of locule; style basal or adaxial , filiform , glabrous ; stigma capitellate . Achene 1(-4), enclosed in membranous hypanthium. Seed basal; testa membranous; cotyledons cylindric-obovoid. x = 8.

Between 100 and 300 species: frigid and temperate regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, and America, extending to alpine areas in the tropics; three species in China.[2]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Plocek Publication : Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 25(4): 402 1991 [1990 publ. 1991]

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 2009

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Alchemilla

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 18 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. alpina (Alpine Lady's Mantle) · A. conjuncta (Ladys Mantle) · A. ellenbeckii (Creeping Ladys Mantle) · A. erythropoda (Dwarf Ladies Mantle) · A. faeroensis 'Pumila' (Ladys Mantle) · A. filicaulis (Ser) · A. glabra (Smooth Lady's Mantle) · A. glomerulans (Clustered Lady's-Mantle) · A. mollis (Lady's Mantle) · A. mollis 'Auslese' (Auslese Lady's Mantle) · A. mollis 'Robusta' (Ladys Mantle) · A. mollis 'Thriller' (Ladys Mantle) · A. monticola (Common Lady's-Mantle) · A. pubescens (Downy Ladys Mantle) · A. saxatilis (Alpine Ladys Mantle) · A. subcrenata (Broadtooth Lady's Mantle) · A. venosa (Boreal Lady's Mantle) · A. xanthochlora (Ladys Mantle)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Cuizhi Gu, Chaoluan Li, Lingdi Lu, Shunyuan Jiang, Crinan Alexander, Bruce Bartholomew, Anthony R. Brach, David E. Boufford, Hiroshi Ikeda, Hideaki Ohba, Kenneth R. Robertson & Steven A. Spongberg "Rosaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 46. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Li Chao-luang, Hiroshi Ikeda, Hideaki Ohba "Alchemilla". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 388. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/22/2012