Gomphrena haageana

(Haage's Globe-Amaranth, Rio Grande Globe Amaranth)

Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
- Kingdom: Plantae Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae Cavalier-Smith, 1981 - Green Plants
    - Phylum: Magnoliophyta Cronquist, Takhtajan & W. Zimmermann, 1966 - Flowering Plants
      - Subphylum: Spermatophytina (auct.) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Seed Plants
        Infraphylum: Angiospermae auct.
        Class: Magnoliopsida Brongniart, 1843 - Dicotyledons
        Subclass: Caryophyllidae Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Caryophyllanae Takhtajan, 1967
        Order: Caryophyllales Perleb, 1826
        Suborder: Chenopodiineae
        Family: Amaranthaceae Adans., 1763, nom. cons. - Amaranth Family
        Subfamily: Gomphrenoideae
        Genus: Gomphrena (gom-FREE-nuh) Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 224. 1753; Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 105. 1754. - [Latin gromphaena, a type of amaranth]
        Specific epithet: haageana Klotzsch
        Botanical name: Gomphrena haageana Klotzsch

Unambiguous Synonyms:

Gomphrena tuberifera Torr.

Notes:

Name Status: Accepted Name. Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Physical Description

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Family Amaranthaceae:

Herbs, clambering subshrubs, shrubs, or lianas. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, exstipulate. Flowers small, bisexual or unisexual, or sterile and reduced, subtended by 1 membranous bract and 2 bracteoles, solitary or aggregated in cymes. Inflorescences elongated or condensed spikes (heads), racemes, or thyrsoid structures of varying complexity. Bracteoles membranous or scarious. Tepals 3-5, membranous, scarious or subleathery, 1-, 3-, 5-, or 7(-23) -veined. Stamens as many as tepals and opposite these, rarely fewer than tepals; filaments free, united into a cup at base or ± entirely into a tube, filament lobes present or absent, pseudostaminodes present or absent; anthers (1- or) 2-loculed, dorsifixed, introrsely dehiscent. Ovary superior, 1-loculed; ovules 1 to many; style persistent, short and indistinct or long and slender; stigma capitate, penicillate, 2-lobed or forming 2 filiform branches. Fruit a dry utricle or a fleshy capsule, indehiscent, irregularly bursting, or circumscissile. Seeds lenticular, reniform, subglobose, or shortly cylindric, smooth or verruculose.

About 70 genera and 900 species: worldwide; 15 genera (one introduced) and 44 species (three endemic, 14 introduced) in China.

Morphology of the androecium, perianth (tepals), and the inflorescence has traditionally been used to circumscribe genera and tribes. Pseudostaminodia are interstaminal appendages with variously shaped apices. Filament appendages are the lateral appendages of filaments (one on each side) . The basic structure of the inflorescence is the cyme (branchlets arising from the bracteole axils, the bracteoles serving as bracts for upper flowers), which can be reduced to one flower with two bracteoles and a bract. Units of dispersal vary considerably (capsules opening with lower part persistent, flower and bracteoles falling together, or cymose partial inflorescences breaking off above bract) and can be characteristic for genera. Several genera possess long trichomes serving dispersal at the base of the tepals.^[1]

Genus Gomphrena:

Herbs, annual or perennial. Stems ascending, decumbent, prostrate, or erect. Leaves opposite, sessile or petiolate; blade ovate to obovate, not fleshy, margins entire, long-pilose abaxially and sometimes adaxially. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, sessile, subglobose heads, often subtended by involucres of sessile leaves; bracts and bracteoles thin. Flowers bisexual; tepals 5, connate proximally; stamens 5; filaments connate basally into tube; pseudostaminodes absent; ovule 1; style 1, 1.5-4 mm; stigmas 2(-3), subulate or filiform. Utricles included in tepals, stramineous, ovoid or oblong, somewhat compressed, membranous, usually indehiscent. Seeds 1, lenticular, subglobose, to ovoid, smooth.

Species ca. 100: tropical, subtropical, and warm-temperate regions.^[2]

Habit: Forb/herb

Distribution

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Range and Population

North America

Reproduction

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Duration: Perennial

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Gomphrena:

Bibliography

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Holzhammer, E. 1955. Die amerikanischen Arten der Gattung Gomphrena Linné. I. Mitt. Bot. Staatssamml. München 2: 85-114.
Holzhammer, E. 1956. Die amerikanischen Arten der Gattung Gomphrena Linné. II. Mitt. Bot. Staatssamml. München 2: 178-257.
Kuan Ke-chien. 1979. Amaranthaceae. In: Kung Hsien-wu & Tsien Cho-po, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 25(2): 194241.

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Notes

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Contributors:

Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed December 03, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 03, 2007:

Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers:

Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 20805
Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13740471
Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60473-1
Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: PDAMA0B030
U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: GOTU
Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 41002

Footnotes:

Bojian Bao, Thomas Borsch & Steven E. Clemants "Amaranthaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 415. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
Steven E. Clemants "Gomphrena". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 406, 451. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.

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Last Revised: May 11, 2008