Alternanthera bettzichiana

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Amaranthaceae

Herbs, clambering subshrubs , shrubs , or lianas. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, exstipulate . Flowers small, bisexual or unisexual , or sterile and reduced, subtended by 1 membranous bract and 2 bracteoles, solitary or aggregated in cymes. Inflorescences elongated or condensed spikes (heads ), racemes , or thyrsoid structures of varying complexity. Bracteoles membranous or scarious . Tepals 3-5, membranous, scarious or subleathery, 1-, 3-, 5-, or 7(-23) -veined. Stamens as many as tepals and opposite these, rarely fewer than tepals; filaments free , united into a cup at base or ± entirely into a tube , filament lobes present or absent, pseudostaminodes present or absent; anthers (1- or) 2-loculed, dorsifixed , introrsely dehiscent . Ovary superior, 1-loculed; ovules 1 to many; style persistent , short and indistinct or long and slender; stigma capitate, penicillate , 2-lobed or forming 2 filiform branches. Fruit a dry utricle or a fleshy capsule, indehiscent, irregularly bursting, or circumscissile. Seeds lenticular , reniform , subglobose, or shortly cylindric , smooth or verruculose .

About 70 genera and 900 species: worldwide; 15 genera (one introduced ) and 44 species (three endemic, 14 introduced) in China.

Morphology of the androecium, perianth (tepals), and the inflorescence has traditionally been used to circumscribe genera and tribes . Pseudostaminodia are interstaminal appendages with variously shaped apices. Filament appendages are the lateral appendages of filaments (one on each side) . The basic structure of the inflorescence is the cyme (branchlets arising from the bracteole axils, the bracteoles serving as bracts for upper flowers), which can be reduced to one flower with two bracteoles and a bract. Units of dispersal vary considerably (capsules opening with lower part persistent, flower and bracteoles falling together, or cymose partial inflorescences breaking off above bract) and can be characteristic for genera. Several genera possess long trichomes serving dispersal at the base of the tepals.[1]

Genus Alternanthera

Herbs or subshrubs , annual or perennial . Stems prostrate , decumbent , ascending , erect , or floating, indumentum of simple trichomes . Leaves opposite, sessile or petiolate ; blade lanceolate to ovate , ovate-rhombic, or obovate-rhombic, margins entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal , sessile or pedunculate , several-flowered cylindric spikes or globose heads , without immediately subtending leaves; bracts and bracteoles scarious . Flowers bisexual ; tepals 5, distinct ; stamens 3-5; filaments connate basally into tube or short cup ; pseudostaminodes 5, alternating with stamens; ovule 1; style 1, ca. 0.2 mm; stigma capitate or rarely 2-lobed. Utricles compressed , ovoid or obovoid , indehiscence. Seeds 1, reddish brown, lenticular or ovoid-oblong.

Species ca. 80: primarily American tropics and subtropics, some in Asia, Africa, and Australia.[2]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 1,016 meters (0 to 3,333 feet).[3]

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Achyranthes bettzichiana (Regel) Standl. • Achyranthes ficoidea bettzichiana (Regel) Baker • Alternanthera amoena (Lemaire) Voss • Alternanthera tenella var. versicolor (Lem.) Veldkamp

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

Members of the genus Alternanthera

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 33 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. bettzichiana (Calicoplant) · A. bettzickiana (Baptist Plant) · A. bettzickiana 'Brilliantissima' (Joyweed) · A. brasiliana (Brazil Chaff-Flower) · A. caracasana (Mat Chaff-Flower) · A. crucis (West Indian Joyweed) · A. dentata 'Purple Knight' (Calico Plant) · A. dentata 'Red Marble' (Calico Plant) · A. dentata 'Rubiginosa' (Calico Plant) · A. echinocephala (Seaurchin Joyweed) · A. ficoidea 'Aurea' (Chartreuse Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'Chartreuse' (Chartreuse Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'Grenadine' (Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'New Burgundy' (Baptist Plant) · A. ficoidea 'Purple Threadleaf' (Baptist Plant) · A. ficoidea 'Rosea Nana' (Dwarf Rose Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'Snow Carpet' (Brazilian Snow Flower) · A. flavescens (Yellow Chaff-Flower) · A. flavogrisea (Alternanthera) · A. hassleriana (Hassler's Alternanthera) · A. lanuginosa (Woolly Tidestromia) · A. maritima (Beach Alternanthera) · A. palmeri (Palmer's Joyweed) · A. paronichyoides (Smooth Chaff-Flower) · A. paronichyoides var. amazonica (Smooth Joyweed) · A. paronichyoides var. paronichyoides (Smooth Joyweed) · A. philoxeroides (Alligator Weed) · A. pungens (Creeping Chaffweed) · A. reineckii (Red Hygrophila) · A. sessilis (Sessile Chaff-Flower) · A. tenella (Alternanthera Snow Ball) · A. tenella tenella (Sanguinaria) · A. trigyna (Island Joyweed)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Flora Costaricensis / William Burger, editor. 13 1983 Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, 1983. url p. 148.
• Flora Vitiensis nova: a new Flora of Fiji (spermatophytes only) / Albert C. Smith. Lawaii, Hawaii: Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden, 1979- url p. 292.
• Useful plants of the Siona and Secoya Indians of eastern Ecuador / William T. Vickers, Timothy Plowman. 15 1984 Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, 1984. url p. 5, p. 61.
• Kuan Ke-chien. 1979. Amaranthaceae. In: Kung Hsien-wu & Tsien Cho-po, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 25(2): 194241.
• Mears, J. A. 1978. The nomenclature and type collections of the widespread taxa of Alternanthera (Amaranthaceae). Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 129: 1-21.

Notes

Contributors

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 28, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.
• Ruggiero M., Gordon D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Nicolson D. (2011). The Catalogue of Life Taxonomic Classification, Edition 2, Part A. In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist (Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds). DVD; Species 2000: Reading, UK.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 10, 2007:

• Herbarium of the University of Aarhus, The AAU Herbarium Database
• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2646929
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-20764
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13740649
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 20764
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: PDAMA03010
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: ACFIB
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 18480

Footnotes

1. Bojian Bao, Thomas Borsch & Steven E. Clemants "Amaranthaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 415. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Steven E. Clemants "Alternanthera". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 406, 435, 447. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. Mean = 293.120 meters (961.680 feet), Standard Deviation = 452.120 based on 8 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.