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Didissandra longipes

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 Didissandra

Herbs, rarely shrubs or subshrubs , perennial , epipetric or terrestrial , rhizomatous . Stems simple or branched. Leaves 2 to few, on stem, opposite, often crowded at stem apex, equal to strongly unequal in a pair; leaf blade puberulent to villous or glabrous , base cuneate to cordate. Inflorescences lax or dense, axillary , 1-10-flowered cymes; bracts 2 or apparently absent, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic , 5-sect from base to 5-lobed; segments equal. Corolla white to yellow, orange-red, purple, or blue-purple, zygomorphic, inside glabrous to sparsely glandular pubescent ; tube narrowly cylindric to cylindric basally, ampliate above, not swollen, 4-5 X longer than limb, 0.6-1.5 cm in diam.; limb 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed, longer than to much shorter than abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes equal or subequal , apex rounded . Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube near or above middle, included ; anthers basifixed , coherent in pairs, thecae divergent, not confluent or confluent, dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting ; staminode absent or 1, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike. Ovary linear , 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal , projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigmas 2, equal or unequal, oblong to deltoid, undivided or 2-lobed. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, linear to narrowly oblong, much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2, straight, not twisted. Seeds unappendaged.

About 31 species: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam; five species in China.[2]

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Briggsia longipes (Hemsl. Ex Oliv.) Craib

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Didissandra

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

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. Wencai Wang, Kai-yu Pan, Zhen-yu Li, Anna L. Weitzman & Laurence E. Skog "Didissandra". in Flora of China Vol. 18 Page 281. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-27