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Rhabdothamnopsis sinensis

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Gesneriaceae

Herbs, shrubs , or rarely trees . Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, whorled or basal, rosette forming; exstipulate ; usually simple , rarely shallowly to deeply lobed , pinnately or rarely palmately veined. Inflorescences usually cymes, rarely racemes , axillary , often near apex and appearing terminal ; usually pedunculate . Flowers perfect , zygomorphic, seldom actinomorphic . Calyx actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic; usually (4 or) 5-divided. Corolla gamopetalous, zygomorphic, rarely actinomorphic; usually 2-lipped. Fertile stamens 2 or 4, then often didynamous , rarely 5, epipetalous ; anthers free or coherent, thecae 2, parallel, divergent, or divaricate ; staminodes 1-3 or absent. Disc ringlike to cupular, rarely absent. Ovary superior in all Old World taxa [half inferior, or inferior], 1-loculed; gynophore seldom present; placentas (1 or) 2, parietal , rarely 2-loculed, placenta 1 per locule and axile ; ovules numerous , anatropous . Style 1; stigmas 1 or 2. Fruit usually capsular , loculicidal, septicidal , or circumscissile, rarely a berry, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, fusiform to ellipsoid or ovoid , minute, sometimes with appendages at 1 or both ends, with or without endosperm; embryo straight, cotyledons equal or unequal after germination.

About 133 genera and 3000 species: Africa, Central and South America, E and S Asia, S Europe, Oceania; 56 genera (25 endemic) and 442 species (354 endemic) in China.

A few foreign well-known ornamental species are cultivated in China, including the florist's gloxinia, Sinningia speciosa (Loddiges) Hiern, and African violet, Saintpaulia ionantha Wendland.

The two ovary carpels may each produce a stigma; these stigmas are fused into a single structure. Some students of Gesneriaceae have considered the stigma to be single and either simple (capitate) or 2-lobed, whereas others consider each of the two stigmas as units . We have maintained the latter usage , but a family-wide investigation of stigma development is needed. The distinction can be blurred, however, because the stigmas may be completely fused into one with a capitate apex (as in Didymocarpus) or one of the two carpels or stigmas may be aborted resulting in a single stigma that may or may not be 2-lobed.[1]

Genus Rhabdothamnopsis

Subshrubs , epipetric or terrestrial , not rhizomatous . Stems branched from base or simple . Leaves few to many, opposite, equal to subequal in a pair; leaf blade puberulent , base cuneate. Flowers solitary, axillary ; bracts 2, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic , 5-sect from base; segments equal. Corolla purple to blue or white to pale yellow, zygomorphic, inside glabrous ; tube campanulate-tubular, not swollen, longer than limb, 0.7-1.3 cm in diam.; limb 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed, slightly shorter than abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes subequal, apex rounded . Stamens 2, adnate to abaxial side of corolla tube near middle , included ; anthers dorsifixed , coherent, thecae divaricate , confluent at apex, dehiscing longitudinally; connective projecting slightly; staminodes 2, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike. Ovary narrowly oblong , 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal , projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigmas 2, unequal, subsemiorbicular to ligulate or ringlike, emarginate . Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, narrowly oblong to nearly linear , much surpassing calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2, spirally twisted. Seeds unappendaged.

One species: endemic to China.[2]

Taxonomy

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Similar Species

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Members of the genus Rhabdothamnopsis

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

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 21, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Wencai Wang, Kai-yu Pan, Zhen-yu Li, Anna L. Weitzman & Laurence E. Skog "Gesneriaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 18 Page 244. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Rhabdothamnopsis". in Flora of China Vol. 18 Page 371. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/25/2012