font settings and languages

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia
Languages:

Helicia yangchunensis

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Proteaceae

Trees or shrubs . Stipules absent. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or whorled , simple or variously divided . Inflorescences axillary , ramiflorous , cauliflorous , or terminal , simple or rarely compound , with flowers borne laterally either in pairs or sometimes singly, racemose, sometimes spicate , paniculate , or condensed into a head ; bracts subtending flower pairs usually small, sometimes accrescent and woody; floral bracts usually minute or absent. Flowers bisexual or rarely unisexual and dioecious, actinomorphic or zygomorphic. Perianth segments (3 or) 4(or 5), valvate , usually tubular in bud; limb short, variously split at anthesis . Stamens 4, opposite perianth segments; filaments usually adnate to perianth and not distinct ; anthers basifixed , usually 2-loculed, longitudinally dehiscent , connective often prolonged. Hypogynous glands 4 (or 1-3 or absent), free or variously connate . Ovary superior, 1-loculed, sessile or stipitate ; ovules 1 or 2(or more), pendulous, laterally or basally, rarely subapically attached. Style terminal, simple, often apically clavate ; stigma terminal or lateral , mostly small. Fruit a follicle, achene, or drupe or drupaceous . Seeds 1 or 2(or few to many), sometimes winged ; endosperm absent (or vestigial) ; embryo usually straight; cotyledons thin or thick and fleshy ; radicle short, inferior.

About 80 genera and ca. 1700 species: mostly in tropics and subtropics, especially in S Africa and Australia: three genera (one introduced ) and 25 species (12 endemic, two introduced) in China.

The family is subdivided into Bellendenoideae, Caranarvonioideae, Eidotheoideae, Grevilleoideae, Persoonioideae, Proteoideae, and Sphalmioideae; all Chinese genera belong to Grevilleoideae. Grevillea robusta is grown extensively as a street tree in S China, especially in Yunnan.[1]

Genus Helicia

Trees , rarely shrubs . Leaves alternate, rarely ± opposite or ± whorled , petiolate or subsessile , simple , margin entire or serrate. Inflorescence axillary , ramiflorous , rarely subterminal , a raceme of flower pairs, many-flowered. Flowers bisexual ; bracts of flowers and flower pairs small, ovate-acuminate to subulate , rarely foliaceous , caducous , rarely persistent . Flower pairs sessile (pedicels free ) or with a basal common peduncle (pedicels connate ). Perianth tube straight, slender, limb clavate to ± globose , segments free and revolute at anthesis . Stamens subsessile, attached slightly below limb; anthers oblong ; connective apiculate . Pollen grains triporate, exine scabrate-granulate. Hypogynous glands 4, free or connate into a ring or cup . Ovary sessile; ovules 2, anatropous , inserted at base of locule or laterally on wall. Style slender; stigma terminal , punctiform . Fruit usually indehiscent, although sometimes splitting along ventral suture; pericarp mostly thick and leathery. Seeds 1 or 2, ± globose to hemispheric ; testa thin; cotyledons fleshy , apically rugulose .

About 97 species: from S India and Japan to SE Australia, mainly in SE Asia and New Guinea; 20 species (ten endemic) in China.[2]

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Helicia

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

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Huaxing Qiu & Peter H. Weston "Proteaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 192. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Helicia". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 192. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-27