Interesting Facts
Description
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]
Physical Description
Habit: Evergreen .
Flowers: Bloom Period: March, April, May, June. • Flower Color: pink
Size/Age/Growth
Size: 6-12" tall.
Habitat
Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 1,006 meters (0 to 3,301 feet).[2]
Biology
Growth
Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full sun .
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- Kingdom:
Plantae
()
- Haeckel, 1866
- Plants
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
()
- Cavalier-Smith, 1981
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
()
- Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Vascular Plants
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
()
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
()
- Kenrick & Crane, 1997
- Class:
Magnoliopsida
()
- Brongniart, 1843
- Dicotyledons
- Subclass:
Caryophyllidae
()
- Takhtajan, 1967
- Superorder:
Caryophyllanae
()
- Takhtajan, 1967
- Order:
Caryophyllales
()
- Perleb, 1826
- Suborder:
Chenopodiineae
()
- Family:
Amaranthaceae
()
- Adanson, 1763 ex A.L. de Jussieu, 1789, nom. cons.
- amaranthes, pigweed
- Subfamily:
Amaranthoideae
()
- Tribe:
Amarantheae
()
- Genus:
Ptilotus
()
- R. Brown, 1810
- Specific epithet:
exaltatus
- Nees
- Botanical name: - Ptilotus exaltatus Nees
- Specific epithet:
exaltatus
- Nees
- Genus:
Ptilotus
(
- Tribe:
Amarantheae
(
- Subfamily:
Amaranthoideae
(
- Family:
Amaranthaceae
(
- Suborder:
Chenopodiineae
(
- Order:
Caryophyllales
(
- Superorder:
Caryophyllanae
(
- Subclass:
Caryophyllidae
(
- Class:
Magnoliopsida
(
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
(
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
(
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
(
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
(
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
Similar Species
Members of the genus Ptilotus
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 0 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:
More Info
- Search for Pictures: images.google.com
- Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
- Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
- Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books
Further Reading
- Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. Sydney, Linnean Society of New South Wales. url , , , , p. 233, p. 267, p. 64, p. 647, p. 647, p. 910.
- Report on the work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia / London: Dulau, 1896. url .
- The Victorian naturalist. [Melbourne]Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. url p. 108, p. 129.
- The standard cyclopedia of horticulture; a discussion, for the amateur, and the professional and commercial grower, of the kinds, characteristics and methods of cultivation of the species of plants grown in the regions of the United States a Illustrated with colored plates, four thousand engravings in the text, and ninety-six full-page cuts. New York, Macmillan, 1919 [c1914] url p. 3632.
- Transactions and proceedings and report of the Royal Society of South Australia. Adelaide, Australia: The Society, 1880-1889. url p. 102, p. 95.
- Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. Adelaide, Australia: The Society, 1890-1903. url p. 107, p. 344, p. 99.
- Kuan Ke-chien. 1979. Amaranthaceae. In: Kung Hsien-wu & Tsien Cho-po, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 25(2): 194241.
Notes
Contributors
- Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.
Data Sources
Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 28, 2007:
- Australian National Herbarium
- , Australian National Herbarium
- Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
- National Herbarium of New South Wales, NSW herbarium collection
Identifiers
- Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 5851397
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 14981689
- Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:93769-3
- International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 93769-3
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 2095392
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. [back]
- Mean = 243.550 meters (799.049 feet), Standard Deviation = 179.170 based on 352 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
