Interesting Facts
Common Names
Common Names in English:
Cryptanthus
Description
Family Bromeliaceae
Herbs or rarely shrubs
, epiphytic, lithophytic, or terrestrial
. Leaves spirally arranged
, usually rosulate, sessile, simple
, veins parallel, base
dilated
, sheathing
, margin
often spinose
serrate or sometimes entire. Inflorescence terminal
or lateral
, scapose
or sessile, a panicle, raceme
, spike, or head
, sometimes reduced to solitary, pseudolateral flowers; bracts usually brightly colored
and conspicuous
. Flowers bisexual
or sometimes functionally unisexual
, 3-merous. Sepals and petals each 3, distinct
, free
or basally connate
; petals often brightly colored, basal margin with a pair of scalelike appendages
. Stamens 6, in 2 whorls of 3; filaments
free, connate, or collectively or individually adnate
to petals; anthers
2-celled, dehiscing by longitudinal
slits. Gynoecium of 3 carpels united
to form a compound
, 3-loculed, superior or very often partly or wholly inferior ovary
; ovules few to usually ± numerous
in each locule; placentation axile
. Style terminal and often 3-parted; stigmas papillose
. Fruit a berry or less often a septicidal
capsule, or seldom compound and fleshy
. Seeds usually winged
or plumose
; endosperm mealy
; embryo small to fairly large.
About 50 genera and 2000--2600 species: mainly tropical
America, except for Pitcairnia feliciana (A. Chevalier) Harms & Mildbraed in tropical W Africa; one species (introduced
) in China.[1]
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- 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:
Spermatopsida
()
- Brongniart, 1843
- Subclass:
Commelinidae
()
- Takhtajan, 1967
- Superorder:
Bromelianae
()
- R. Dahlgren Ex Reveal, 1992
- Order:
Poales
()
- Small, 1903
- Family:
Bromeliaceae
()
- A.L. de Jussieu, 1789, nom. cons.
- Bromeliad Family
- Subfamily:
Bromelioideae
()
- Genus:
Cryptanthus
()
- Otto & A.G. Dietrich, 1836, nom. cons.
- Cultivar:
Sweet Tooth
- Botanical name: - Cryptanthus 'Sweet Tooth'
- Cultivar:
Sweet Tooth
- Genus:
Cryptanthus
(
- Subfamily:
Bromelioideae
(
- Family:
Bromeliaceae
(
- Order:
Poales
(
- Superorder:
Bromelianae
(
- Subclass:
Commelinidae
(
- Class:
Spermatopsida
(
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
(
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
(
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
(
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
(
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
Similar Species
Members of the genus Cryptanthus
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 79 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:
C. acaulis (Green Earth Star) · C. acaulis var. ruber (Green Earthstar) · C. acaulis 'Grace' (Cryptanthus) · C. arelii (Cryptanthus) · C. argyrophyllus (Cryptanthus) · C. bahianus (Cryptanthus) · C. beuckeri (Cryptanthus) · C. bivittatus (Earth Star) · C. bivittatus (Hook.) Regel var. major (Earth Star) · C. bivittatus 'Black Mystic' (Earth Star) · C. bivittatus 'Pink Starlite' (Pink Starlite Earth Star) · C. bivittatus 'Ruby' (Earth Star) · C. bivittatus 'Soft Touch' (Earth Star) · C. bromelioides (Cryptanthus) · C. caracensis (Cryptanthus) · C. caulescens (Cryptanthus) · C. colnagoi (Cryptanthus) · C. coriaceus (Cryptanthus) · C. correia-araujoi (Cryptanthus) · C. dianae (Cryptanthus) · C. fernseeoides (Cryptanthus) · C. fosterianus (Cryptanthus) · C. glazioui (Cryptanthus) · C. grazielae (Cryptanthus) · C. lacerdae 'Menescal' (Cryptanthus) · C. leopoldo-horstii (Cryptanthus) · C. lutherianus (Cryptanthus) · C. lyman-smithii (Cryptanthus) · C. marginatus (Cryptanthus) · C. maritimus (Earth Star) · C. microglazioui (Cryptanthus) · C. osiris (Cryptanthus) · C. pseudopetiolatus (Cryptanthus) · C. rariflora (Earth Star) · C. reisii (Earth Star) · C. ruthiae (Cryptanthus) · C. sinuosus (Cryptanthus) · C. ubairensis (Cryptanthus) · C. warasii (Cryptanthus) · C. zonatus (Cryptanthus) · C. zonatus 'Zebrinus' (Zebra Plant) · C. 'Alpine Frost' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Angel Dust' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Backwash' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Black Magic' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Bone Chiller' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Cafe Au Lait' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Carnival De Rio' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Cascade' (Cascade Cryptanthus) · C.'Chocolate Soldier' (Chocolate Soldier Bromeliad) · C. 'Corrine' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Durrell' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Dusk' (Earth Star) · C. 'Earth Angel' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Elaine' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Elizabeth' (Elizabeth Earth Star) · C. 'Fire and Ice' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Frostbite' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Green Star' (Earth Star) · C. 'Houston' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Indian Maiden' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Lirico' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Lou Trahan' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Malachite' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Marian Oppenheimer' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Mars' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Ocean Mist' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Offinen' (Earth Star) · C. 'Opal' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Rainbow Star' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Raspberry Ice' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Red Knight' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Silver King' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Southern Jade' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Spellbound' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Starbright' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Sweet Tooth' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Tabasco' (Cryptanthus) · C. 'Timothy Plowman' (Cryptanthus)
More Info
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Further Reading
- Ma Weiliang. 1997. Bromeliaceae. In: Wu Kuo-fang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 13(3): 64--68.
Notes
Contributors
- Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.
Identifiers
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 949135
Footnotes
- Wei-liang Ma & Bruce Bartholomew "Bromeliaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 18. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
