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Corallodiscus flabellatus

Interesting Facts

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Description

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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]

Genus Corallodiscus

Herbs, perennial , epipetric , rhizomatous , stemless. Leaves many, basal; leaf blade glabrous to densely woolly , base narrowly to broadly cuneate, rarely subrounded. Inflorescences lax or dense, axillary , rarely subumbel-like, 1- to many-flowered cymes; bracts apparently absent. Calyx actinomorphic , 5-sect from near base to 5-lobed from near middle ; segments equal. Corolla blue to purple, seldom yellow to white, zygomorphic, inside densely bearded on abaxial lip; tube tubular , not swollen, much longer than limb, 1-7 mm in diam.; limb 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed, usually distinctly shorter than abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes subequal , rarely unequal, apex rounded to obtuse . Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube above base or rarely above middle, included or rarely slightly exserted; anthers dorsifixed , coherent in pairs, thecae divaricate , confluent , dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting ; staminode 1, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike. Ovary oblong , 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal , projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigma 1, terminal , capitate, emarginate . Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, narrowly oblong to linear , rarely ovoid , much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally or sometimes septicidally to base; valves 2, straight, not twisted. Seeds unappendaged.

Three to five species: Bhutan, China, N India, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand; three species in China.[2]

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Didissandra Flabellata

Notes

Publishing author : B .L.Burtt Publication : in Gard. Chron., Ser. 3, cxxii. 212 (1947)

Basionym author: (Craib)

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Corallodiscus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 0 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 03, 2008:

Identifiers

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. "Corallodiscus". in Flora of China Vol. 18 Page 283. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/22/2012