Pieris 'Mount Congreve Coral'

Description

Family Ericaceae

Plants usually woody, or herbs, sometimes lacking chlorophyll. Leaves spiral , sometimes decussate, margin often toothed . Inflorescence racemose; bracteoles paired , basal. Flowers (4 or) 5-merous. Calyx imbricate. Corolla connate , imbricate. Stamens 10, sometimes with spurs or awns , dehiscing by pores , pollen in tetrads , rarely single. Ovary superior or inferior, placentation axile , rarely parietal , often many ovules per locule. Style ± as long as corolla, slender. Fruit a capsule or berry, rarely a drupe; calyx persistent .

About 125 genera and 4000 species: widely distributed in temperate and subarctic regions, also at high elevations in tropical regions ; 22 genera and 826 species (524 endemic) in China.

The Monotropoideae are here included in the Ericaceae; previously in FRPS (56: 157 216. 1990), they were treated as the Pyrolaceae. Chiogenes, recorded from China in FRPS (57(3) : 69 71. 1991), is here included in Gaultheria. Over the last half century, the Empetraceae have usually been separated from, but closely associated with, the Ericaceae. In their ecology, leaf morphology and insertion , rusts, embryology, stamen anatomy, etc. , they largely agree with that family . Molecular data place Empetrum and its relatives firmly within the Ericaceae, and in particular within the subfamily Ericoideae, in agreement with phytochemical and palynological data, and there they are best recognized as a separate tribe . There are distinctive features of the Empetreae that were responsible for their past familial status, e.g. , reduced perianth with separate members , low ovule number, enlarged stigmas, etc. However, these are likely to be derived features associated with wind pollination. See Kron et al. (Bot. Rev. 68: 335 423. 2002) and the recent treatment of the Ericaceae by Stevens et al. (in Kubitzki, Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 6: 145 194. 2004) .

Several genera and many species are ornamentals . Some fruits of Vaccinium in N China are sweet and edible, but of no particular value to humans. Some species of Chamaedaphne, Craibiodendron, Leucothoë, Lyonia, Pieris, and Rhododendron contain more or less toxic diterpenes, which are harmful to humans or domestic animals.Mingyuan Fang, Ruizheng Fang, Mingyou He, Linzheng Hu, Hanbi Yang, Haining Qin, Tianlu Min, David F. Chamberlain, Peter Stevens, Gary D. Wallace & Arne Anderberg "Ericaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 242. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Genus Pieris

Shrubs or trees , evergreen [or woody vines in E North America]. Leaves spirally arranged or pseudoverticillate [or in whorls of 3 in NE Asia], petiolate ; leaf blade leathery, margin entire to strongly toothed . Inflorescences terminal or axillary , paniculate or racemose. Pedicels ± pubescent and with glandular hairs . Flowers 5-merous. Calyx valvate , abaxially glandular, adaxially pubescent. Corolla white, urceolate to tubular-urceolate, shortly 5-lobed. Stamens included ; filaments swollen at base , straight or geniculate ; anthers on back with a pair of spurs at anther-filament junction, dehiscing by introrse-terminal and elliptic pores . Ovary superior, with many ovules per locule. Stigma truncate . Capsule loculicidal, with 5 unthickened sutures . Seeds small.

Seven species: E Asia, Caribbean Region, E North America; three species (one endemic) in China.Fang Rhui-cheng, Peter F. Stevens "Pieris". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 460. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Magnoliophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Flowering Plants
      - Subphylum: Euphyllophytina ()
        Infraphylum: Radiatopses () - Kenrick & Crane, 1997
        Class: Magnoliopsida () - Brongniart, 1843 - Dicotyledons
        Subclass: Dilleniidae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Ericanae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Order: Ericales () - Dumortier, 1829
        Family: Ericaceae () - Durande, 1782, Nom. Cons. - Heath Family
        Subfamily: Vaccinioideae ()
        Tribe: Andromedeae ()
        Genus: Pieris () - D. Don - Fetterbush
        Cultivar: Mount Congreve Coral
        Botanical name: - Pieris 'Mount Congreve Coral'

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Pieris

There are approximately 238 species in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

Bibliography

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Chou Yiliang & Zhou Ruichang. 1990. Pyrolaceae. In: Fang Wenpei & Hu Wenkuang, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 56: 157216
Fang Rhuicheng, Yang Hanbi & Chin Tsenli. 1999. Ericaceae (1). In: Fang Rhuicheng, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(1): 1213
Hsu Tingzhi, Gao Baochun, Fang Rhuicheng & Huang Shuhua. 1991. Ericaceae (3). In: Fang Rhuicheng, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(3): 1207
Hu Wenkuang, Hu Lincheng, Fang Mingyuan & He Mingyou. 1994. Ericaceae (2). In: Hu Lincheng, Fang Mingyuan, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(2): 1438
Ming Tien lu. 1980. Empetraceae. In: Cheng Mien & Ming Tien lu, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 45(1): 6062.

More Info

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Pieris 'Mount Congreve Coral'

Description

Family Ericaceae

Genus Pieris

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Pieris

Bibliography

More Info

Notes

Identifiers

Footnotes