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• Physical Description
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Taxonomy

Physical Description

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]

Similar Species

Members of the genus Brachyloma:

There are approximately 49 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus: B. daphnoides glabrum · B. daphnoides pubescens · B. ericoides bicolor · B. ciliatum · B. ciliatum var. ciliatum · B. ciliatum var. intermedium · B. concolor · B. daphnoides · B. daphnoides daphnoides · B. daphnoides subsp. glabrum · B. daphnoides subsp. pubescens · B. daphnoides var. daphnoides · B. daphnoides var. glabrum · B. delbi · B. depressum · B. elongatum · B. erianthum · B. ericoides (Brush Heath) · B. ericoides subsp. bicolor · B. ericoides subsp. ericoides · B. hirsutum · B. hondense · B. incurvum · B. karstenianum · B. leucomallon · B. longiflorum · B. longifolium · B. longipes · B. mogin · B. molle · B. moritzianum · B. nguba · B. petiolare · B. pictum · B. pilosum · B. preissii · B. preissii var. preissii · B. rhodomallon · B. rhynchocarpum · B. rubicaule · B. rubricaule · B. saxicola · B. scortechinii · B. strictum · B. trianae · B. tubiflora · B. tubiflorum · B. ventricosum · B. vestitum

Bibliography

• Wang Wentsai, Pan Kaiyu, & Li Zhenyu. 1990. Gesneriaceae. In: Wang Wentsai, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 69: 125-581.

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Notes

Identifiers:

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15502002
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:378422-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3437376

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.