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Tidestromia suffruticosa

(Shrubby Honeysweet)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Shrubby Honeysweet, Shrubby Tidestromia

Description

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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]

Genus Tidestromia

Herbs or subshrubs , annual or perennial , densely pubescent or glabrous , rhizomatous . Stems ascending , decumbent , or prostrate , herbaceous or suffrutescent , usually bearing buds at base in perennial species. Leaves: distal leaves opposite, proximal leaves sometimes alternate, sessile or petiolate ; blade lanceolate to circular, chartaceous to fleshy , base attenuate, cuneate, cordate, or oblique , margins entire, apex acute to obtuse . Inflorescences axillary , sessile dichasium, subtended by 2 subopposite, involucral leaves that become indurate and connate in age. Flowers bisexual , sessile or short-pedicellate; tepals 5, distinct , keeled , inner 2 distinctly shorter than outer 3, scarious or coriaceous , base cuneate, margins entire or distally crenate , apex acute or obtuse [aristate ], glabrous or lanuginose; trichomes completely and partially candelabriform or with random projections [barbed ]; stamens 5; filaments connate at base into low cups , usually equal; anthers 2-locular; pseudostaminodes triangular short lobes [linear , equalling filaments] or absent; staminodes present or absent; ovule 1, membranous; styles absent or short; stigmas 2-fid or seldom irregularly 3-fid (in var. oblongifolia), deltoid. Utricules subglobose, proximally membranous, distally hyaline, indehiscent. Seeds 1, brown-red or white, obovoid . x = 10.

Species 6: North America, n Mexico, West Indies.

Tidestromia species traditionally have been characterized by habit, texture , pubescence , forms of tepal trichomes, and size of pseudostaminodes. The phyllotaxy of Tidestromia has been the source of some confusion. It has been characterized as opposite (C. F. Reed 1970; K . R. Robertson 1981; F. Shreve and I. L. Wiggins 1964; P. C. Standley 1917b) or alternate to opposite in proximal leaves and opposite or whorled in threes in distal leaves (J. Henrickson 1993). Detailed observations show that three leaves are commonly present nearly at the same node; one of these leaves is the true leaf with alternate phyllotaxy, and the other two are subopposite involucral leaves. The inflorescences are usually described as glomerules (D. S. Correll and M. C. Johnston 1970; U. H. Eliasson 1988; K. R. Robertson 1981; F. Shreve and I. L. Wiggins 1964; P. C. Standley 1916c, 1917b; I. L. Wiggins 1980). They are in fact dichasia surrounded by involucral leaves and, sometimes, a true leaf.

The morphology of the involucrelike structures surrounding the fruits are taxonomically useful, especially those located on secondary branches. They are formed in two ways. In the first, the involucres in fruit are composed of either the stem and the petioles of the two involucral leaves, or the stem, the petioles of the two involucral leaves, and the petiole of a true leaf. In the second, the involucres in fruit are composed of either the bases of the two involucral leaves or the bases of the two involucral leaves and base of the true leaf, but never with the stem. The involucres in fruit on secondary branches can be recognized because they separate as a single unit of dispersion.[2]

Physical Description

Species Tidestromia suffruticosa

Subshrubs , perennial , gray-green, grayish, or sometimes reddish, to 60 cm, canescent , pruinose , or densely lanuginose to glabrate ; trichomes completely or partially candelabriform. Stems ascending or decumbent , suffrutescent or suffruticulose , buds commonly present, rarely absent, on stem bases , lanate or densely lanate. Leaves: petiole to 2.5 cm; blade lanceolate, ovate , ovate-oblong, very widely ovate, circular, or reniform , 0.6-4.5 × 0.4-2.7 cm, chartaceous , base cordate, cuneate, lightly attenuate, or oblique . Inflorescences 1-3(-4) -flowered; involucral leaf petiole to 0.9 cm, blade lanceolate, ovate, very widely ovate, circular, or reniform, 0.2-2.7 × 0.2-2.1 cm, chartaceous, base cuneate, cordate, attenuate, or oblique, apex acute or obtuse ; involucre on secondary branches formed by connation of involucral leaf petioles, which becomes indurate and adnate with stem or with leaf petiole and stem; bracts widely ovate or widely depressed-ovate, 0.8-1.6 × 0.8-1.6 mm, apex acute or obtuse, crenate , lanuginose distally or glabrous ; bracteoles 0.9-1.5 × 0.6-1.4 mm, apex acute or obtuse, lanuginose or glabrous. Flowers 1.7-3 mm; tepals yellowish or yellowish brown, 1.7-2.7 × 0.6-1.3 mm, densely lanuginose to glabrous; staminal cup 0.4-0.9 mm; filaments 0.5-1 mm; anthers 0.5-0.9 mm; pseudostaminodes absent or triangular lobes , 0.1-0.3 mm; ovary 0.3-0.7 × 0.5-0.9 mm; style to 0.1 mm; stigmas 0.2-0.5 mm. Utricles 1-1.8 × 0.8-1.6 mm. Seeds brown-red, 0.9-1.5 × 0.8-1.4 mm. [source]

Tidestromia suffruticosa is easily recognized by its perennial, subshrub habit. It varies in density and color of indumentum, number and size of interstaminal appendages , and color and indumentum of tepals. [source]

I. M. Johnston (1943) recognized two varieties of Tidestromia: var. suffruticosa and var. coahuilana. The former has weakly woody stems, hairy flowers, and short-petiolate involucral leaves; var. coahuilana has rigidly woody stems, glabrous flowers, and distinctly petiolate involucral leaves, although he noted that these differences were not always strongly developed. We have found that these characters vary widely within T. suffruticosa and that var. coahuilana is not worthy of recognition. [source]

Tidestromia gemmata was described by I. M. Johnston (1943) as having coarse , very strong taproots , conspicuous large cottony buds (gemmae) borne near the surface of the soil, slightly more woody reddish stems, and thicker more strongly veined leaves. C. F. Reed (1970) further distinguished the species by the lack of pseudostaminodes and prostrate habit. We found that buds on the apex of the caudex are present in all perennial species of Tidestromia but can be absent on many well-collected specimens. Interstaminal appendages vary in number from zero to five. Furthermore, T. gemmata is not prostrate but is ascending or decumbent and there are no taxonomically useful differences with T. suffruticosa in the thickness of the taproot, stem characters, or leaf venation. We treat T. gemmata and T. suffruticosa as conspecific . [source]

Tidestromia suffruticosa includes the distinctive features of T. oblongifolia used by P. C. Standley (1917b) and D. S. Correll and M. C. Johnston (1970). The only taxonomically important character is leaf shape; other characters given by those authors are not taxonomically important. In addition, however, characters of the involucres and distribution serve to distinguish T. oblongifolia as a variety of T. suffruticosa. [source]

Habit: Subshrub , Shrub

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Alternanthera suffruticosa Torrey in W. H. Emory • Cladothrix suffruticosa (Torrey) Bentham & Hooker F. ex S. Watson

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Tidestromia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 8 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

T. carnosa (Fleshy Honeysweet) · T. gemmata (Transpecos Honeysweet) · T. lanuginosa (Honeymat) · T. oblongifolia (Arizona Honeysweet) · T. oblongifolia cryptantha (Arizona Honeysweet) · T. oblongifolia oblongifolia (Arizona Honeysweet) · T. oblongifolia subsp. cryptantha (Arizona Honeysweet) · T. suffruticosa (Shrubby Honeysweet)

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 January 04, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. 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]
  2. Ivonne Sánchez del Pino & Steven E. Clemants "Tidestromia". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 405, 406, 439. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012