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Spatholirion longifolium

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Commelinaceae

Herbs annual or perennial , sometimes woody at base . Stems with prominent nodes and internodes. Leaves alternate, distichous or spirally arranged , sessile or petiolate ; leaf sheath prominent, open or closed ; leaf blade simple , entire. Inflorescence usually of cincinni in panicles or solitary, sometimes shortened into heads , sometimes sessile with flowers fascicled, sometimes axillary and penetrating enveloping leaf sheath, rarely flowers solitary and terminal or axillary. Flowers bisexual , rarely unisexual , actinomorphic or zygomorphic. Sepals 3, free or connate only at base, often boat-shaped or carinate , sometimes galeate at apex. Petals (2 or) 3, free, sometimes connate and tubular at middle and free at 2 ends ( Cyanotis), sometimes clawed. Stamens 6, free, all or only 2 or 3 fertile ; filaments glabrous or torulose villous ; anthers parallel or slightly divergent, longitudinally dehiscent , rarely dehiscent by apical pores ; staminodes 1--3; antherodes 4-lobed and butterflylike, 3-sect, 2-lobed and dumbbell-shaped, or entire. Ovary 3-loculed, or reduced to 2-loculed; ovules 1 to several per locule, orthotropous . Fruit a loculicidal, 2- or 3-valved capsule, rarely baccate and indehiscent. Seeds few, large; endosperm copious ; hilum orbicular or linear .

About 40 genera and 650 species: mainly in tropical regions , fewer species in subtropical and temperate regions ; 15 genera (two introduced ) and 59 species (12 endemic, three introduced) in China.[1]

Genus Spatholirion

Herbs perennial , climbing or suberect. Rhizomes absent. Lateral branches penetrating leaf sheaths . Leaves alternate. Inflorescence borne opposite leaf and exserted from mouth of leaf sheath, but not penetrating sheath, a long pedunculate panicle of numerous cincinni; basal cincinnus with a leaflike involucral bract at base , with bisexual flowers, others without involucral bracts, with only male flowers. Flowers actinomorphic . Sepals free , boat-shaped , herbaceous, galeate at apex. Petals free, purple or white, broadly linear or oblanceolate . Stamens 6, all fertile , equal; filaments lanate ; anther locules parallel, ellipsoid , longitudinally dehiscent . Ovary 3-loculed; ovules 8 per locule. Capsule 3-valved, ovoid , trigonous ; seeds 4--8 per valve , polygonal, reticulate ; hilum linear.

Three species: China, Thailand, Vietnam; two species in China.

Spatholirion differs from Streptolirion mainly in having involucral bracts on only the basal cincinnus of the panicles, not all nodes of the lateral branches bearing an inflorescence, and an ovary containing 4--8 ovules per locule.[2]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Dunn Publication : Bull . Misc. Inform. Kew 1911, 162.

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 21-Jun-2005

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Spatholirion

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

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Deyuan Hong & Robert A. DeFilipps "Commelinaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 19. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Spatholirion". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 20. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/19/2012