Brachyloma hirsutum

Description

Family Gesneriaceae

Herbs, shrubs , or rarely trees . Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, whorled or basal, rosette forming; exstipulate ; usually simple , rarely shallowly to deeply lobed , pinnately or rarely palmately veined. Inflorescences usually cymes, rarely racemes , axillary , often near apex and appearing terminal ; usually pedunculate . Flowers perfect , zygomorphic, seldom actinomorphic . Calyx actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic; usually (4 or) 5-divided. Corolla gamopetalous, zygomorphic, rarely actinomorphic; usually 2-lipped. Fertile stamens 2 or 4, then often didynamous , rarely 5, epipetalous ; anthers free or coherent, thecae 2, parallel, divergent, or divaricate ; staminodes 1-3 or absent. Disc ringlike to cupular, rarely absent. Ovary superior in all Old World taxa [half inferior, or inferior], 1-loculed; gynophore seldom present; placentas (1 or) 2, parietal , rarely 2-loculed, placenta 1 per locule and axile ; ovules numerous , anatropous . Style 1; stigmas 1 or 2. Fruit usually capsular , loculicidal, septicidal , or circumscissile, rarely a berry, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, fusiform to ellipsoid or ovoid , minute, sometimes with appendages at 1 or both ends, with or without endosperm; embryo straight, cotyledons equal or unequal after germination.

About 133 genera and 3000 species: Africa, Central and South America, E and S Asia, S Europe, Oceania; 56 genera (25 endemic) and 442 species (354 endemic) in China.

A few foreign well-known ornamental species are cultivated in China, including the florist's gloxinia, Sinningia speciosa (Loddiges) Hiern, and African violet, Saintpaulia ionantha Wendland.

The two ovary carpels may each produce a stigma; these stigmas are fused into a single structure. Some students of Gesneriaceae have considered the stigma to be single and either simple (capitate) or 2-lobed, whereas others consider each of the two stigmas as units . We have maintained the latter usage , but a family-wide investigation of stigma development is needed. The distinction can be blurred, however, because the stigmas may be completely fused into one with a capitate apex (as in Didymocarpus) or one of the two carpels or stigmas may be aborted resulting in a single stigma that may or may not be 2-lobed.Wencai Wang, Kai-yu Pan, Zhen-yu Li, Anna L. Weitzman & Laurence E. Skog "Gesneriaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 18 Page 244. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
      - Subphylum: Euphyllophytina ()
        Infraphylum: Radiatopses () - Kenrick & Crane, 1997
        Class: Magnoliopsida () - Brongniart, 1843 - Dicotyledons
        Subclass: Lamiidae () - Takhtajan Ex Reveal, 1992
        Superorder: Lamianae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Order: Scrophulariales () - Lindley, 1833
        Family: Gesneriaceae () - Dumortier, 1822, Nom. Cons. - Gesneriad Family
        Genus: Brachyloma ()
        Specific epithet: hirsutum - Hanst.
        Botanical name: - Brachyloma hirsutum Hanst.