Columnea minor

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

Interesting Facts

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.[1]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 4,653 meters (0 to 15,266 feet).[2]

Taxonomy

Notes

Publishing author : Hanst. Publication : Linnaea 34: 387 1865

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Similar Species

Members of the genus Columnea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 13 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. ambigua (Tibey De Cresta) · C. arguta (Columnea) · C. gloriosa 'Superba' (Goldfish Plant) · C. hirta (Goldfish Plant) · C. linearis (Columnea) · C. scandens (Tibey Parasito) · C. scandens var. tulae (Tibey Parasito) · C. schiedeana (Columnea) · C. x banksii (Goldfish Plant) · C.'Cascading Beauty' (Goldfish Plant) · C. 'Early Bird' (Goldfish Plant) · C. 'Fujiyama' (Goldfish Plant) · C. 'Mirage' (Goldfish Plant)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 224, p. 322.
• Wang Wentsai, Pan Kaiyu, & Li Zhenyu. 1990. Gesneriaceae. In: Wang Wentsai, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 69: 125-581.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 20, 2007:

• Herbarium of the University of Aarhus, The AAU Herbarium Database
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 5961391
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13847297
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:378926-1
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 378926-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 728175

Footnotes

1. 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. [back]
2. Mean = 1,984.370 meters (6,510.400 feet), Standard Deviation = 1,039.540 based on 142 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.