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• Physical Description
• Distribution
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Taxonomy

Notes:

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Physical Description

Family Marantaceae:

Herbs perennial, rhizomatous. Aerial stems present or absent. Leaves distichous, usually large; petiole sheathing at base, apex with a swollen pulvinus; leaf blade pinnately veined, lateral veins parallel, slightly S-shaped. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, borne on leafy shoots or occasionally on separate, leafless shoots from rhizomes, compound, headlike, spicate, or diffuse and much branched, bracteate; bracts each subtending a pair of flowers or a cincinus of paired flowers. Flowers bisexual, asymmetric, paired or rarely borne singly. Sepals 3, free. Corolla lobes 3, often slightly unequal, basally connate into a tube. Staminodes and stamen in 2 whorls: outer whorl with 1 or 2 petaloid staminodes, rarely absent; inner whorl with 1 hooded (cucullate) staminode enclosing terminal portion of pistil at anthesis and bearing a lateral appendage (trigger), 1 thickened and fleshy (callose) staminode, and 1 fertile stamen narrowly petaloid laterally; anther 1-loculed. Ovary inferior, 3-loculed, 1--3 locules fertile; ovules 1 per locule. Style cylindric, adnate to inside of corolla and staminode tube, free portion curved after explosive forward movement (tripping) when released Seeds 1--3, hard, usually arillate.from hooded staminode; stigma scoop-shaped or blunted and 3-cleft. Fruit a capsule, loculicidal, rarely indehiscent or berrylike.

Thirty-one genera and ca. 525 species: pantropical but ca. 80% in America, absent from Australia; four genera (one introduced) and eight species (two endemic, one introduced) in China.^[1]

Genus Maranta:

Plants terrestrial, prostrate, scandent, or upright, usually dying back to rhizome during dry season, 0.1--1.5(--1.8) m. Rhizomes occasionally swollen, storing starch. Stems branched or unbranched with basal and cauline leaves to highly branched above elongate, cane-like stem (internode) with few or no basal leaves. Leaves homotropic [rarely antitropic]; sheath usually auriculate, not spongy; blade [patterned] plain green, ovate to elliptic. Inflorescences usually 2--several per shoot, spikel-like, unbranched; bracts persistent, subtending 2--6 pedicellate flower pairs, herbaceous; prophylls keeled, membranous; secondary bracts absent; bracteoles usually absent. Flowers self-fertilizing [or outcrossing], corolla white, staminodes white [purple]; sepals persistent in fruit, more than 5 mm, herbaceous; corolla tube [4--]12--14 mm, corolla lobes unequal; outer staminodes 2, petal-like; callose staminode apex usually petal-like; cucullate staminode with 1 appendage, medial [subterminal], flaplike [fingerlike]; stylar movement in single plane; style unappendaged. Fruits capsules, 1-seeded, obliquely ellipsoid, pericarp relatively thin, dehiscent. Seeds brown, ellipsoid, rugose; perisperm canal 1, distally branched; aril conspicuous, white.

Species 32: tropical and subtropical regions, s Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America (to n Argentina).^[2]

Images:

Distribution

Similar Species

Members of the genus Maranta:

There are approximately 276 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: M. affinis · M. albo-lineata · M. albo-picta · M. allouia · M. amabilis · M. amazonica · M. amplifolia · M. anderssoniana · M. angustifolia · M. argyraea · M. argyrophylla · M. arouma · M. arrecta · M. arundinaacea · M. arundinacea (Arrow-Root) · M. arundinacea 'Variegata' (Arrowroot) · M. arundinacea f. sylvestris · M. arundinacea var. divaricata · M. arundinacea var. indica · M. arundinaceae · M. asymetrica · M. atrata · M. aurantiaca · M. bachemiana · M. bambusacea · M. baraquinii · M. bella · M. bicolor (Prayer Plant) · M. binoti · M. blumei · M. borussica · M. brachystachys · M. bracteosa · M. burchellii · M. cachibou · M. caespitosa · M. capitata · M. casupito · M. casupo · M. chimboracensis · M. chouca · M. cinerea · M. clavata · M. coccinea · M. comosa · M. composita · M. compressa · M. concinna · M. concolor · M. conspicua · M. cordata · M. coriifolia · M. cristata · M. cuspidata · M. cuyabensis · M. cyclophylla · M. cylindrica · M. dealbata · M. depressa · M. dichotoma · M. discolor · M. disticha · M. divaricata · M. divaricata f. major · M. divarictata · M. dubia · M. eburnea · M. eximia · M. fasciata · M. fascinator · M. flavescens · M. flexuosa · M. florestina · M. foliosa · M. friedrichsthaliana · M. friedrichsthallana · M. fruticosa · M. fulgens · M. furcata · M. galanga · M. geniculata · M. gibba · M. glabra · M. gladioli · M. glumacea · M. gracilis · M. graminifolia · M. grandiflora · M. grandifolia · M. grandis · M. guileti · M. hatschbachiana · M. herderiana · M. hexantha · M. hieroglyphica · M. hirsuta · M. hjalmarssoni · M. hoyeti · M. humilis · M. iconifera

Bibliography

• Andersson, L. 1986. Revision of Maranta subgen. Maranta. Nordic J. Bot. 6: 729--756. Anonymous. 1893. St. Vincent arrowroot. Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1893: 191--204.
• Hodge, W. H. and D. Taylor. 1957. The ethnobotany of the Island Caribs of Dominica. Webbia 12: 513--644.
• In: Wu Te-lin, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 16(2): 158--169.
• Judd, W.S., Campbell, C.S., Kellog, E.A. and Donoghue, M.J. (2002): Plant Systematics: a phylogenetic approach, Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.
• Morton, J. F. 1977. Wild Plants for Survival in South Florida, ed. 4. Miami.
• Purseglove, J. W. 1972. Tropical Crops. Monocotyledons. 2 vols. London. Pp. 336--342.
• Sturtevant, W. C. 1969. History and ethnography of some West Indian starches. In: P. J. Ucko and G. W. Dimbleby, eds. 1969. The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. Chicago. Pp. 177--199.
• Wu Te-lin & Chen Sen-jen. 1981. Marantaceae.

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Notes

Contributors:

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2006. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed October 6, 2006.

Identifiers:

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15991247
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:1173063-2
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1829910

Footnotes:

1. Delin Wu & Helen Kennedy "Marantaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 379. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. "Maranta". in Flora of North America Vol. 22. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.