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Metaeritrichium microuloides

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Boraginaceae

Herbs perennial , biennial, or annual , less often lianas, shrubs , or trees , usually bristly or scabrous-pubescent. Leaves simple , exstipulate , alternate, rarely opposite, entire or serrate at margin . Inflorescences often double scorpioid cymes, rarely solitary; bracts present or absent. Flowers bisexual , actinomorphic , rarely zygomorphic. Calyx usually 5-parted or lobed , mostly persistent . Corolla tubular , campanulate , rotate, funnelform , or salverform ; tube appendages 5, rarely more, mostly trapeziform, rarely absent, sometimes a ring of hairs present; limb usually 5-parted; lobes overlapping, rarely twisted in bud. Stamens 5, inserted on corolla tube or rarely at throat , included or rarely exserted; anthers introrse , 2-loculed, usually dorsifixed at base , less often medifixed , dehiscence longitudinal . Nectaries at base of corolla tube or on disc below ovary. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate; locules 2 and each with 2 ovules, or 4 and each with 1 ovule; ovules nearly atropous , semianatropous, or anatropous . Style terminal or gynobasic , branched or not. Gynobase flat, fastigiate , or subulate . Fruit 1-4-seeded drupes or nutlets (mericarps) ; nutlets mostly dry, often ornamented with wings , prickles and/or glochids (stiff bristles with barbed or anchorlike tips ) . Seeds vertical or oblique , coat membranous; embryo straight, less often curved ; cotyledons flat, fleshy .

About 156 genera and 2500 species: temperate and tropical regions , centered in the Mediterranean region; 47 genera and 294 species in China, of which four genera and 156 species are endemic.[1]

Genus Metaeritrichium

Herbs annual . Flowers solitary, axillary . Calyx 5-parted nearly to base ; lobes lanceolate, slightly elongated in fruit. Corolla campanulate-tubular; tube somewhat longer than limb; limb 5-parted; lobes overlapping, suborbicular , with small appendages . Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube, included ; anthers ovate-triangular; filaments short. Ovary 4-parted. Style reaching middle of corolla; stigma depressed globose . Gynobase flat. Nutlets 4, horizontally rotate spreading from gynobase, dorsiventrally compressed , ovoid , marginal rib with triangular glochids, margin with smaller glochids; large prickles confluent into a broad wing ; attachment scar apical.

One species: endemic to China.

Flower construction, nutlet morphology, and marginal glochids indicate that Metaeritrichium is closely related to Eritrichium, but it differs in having a flat gynobase and rotate-spreading nutlets with apical attachment scars. The gynobase, habit, and pollen grain morphology are similar to those of Microula, but Metaeritrichium differs in having nutlets with prickly marginal ribs and apical attachment scar.[2]

Taxonomy

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Similar Species

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Members of the genus Metaeritrichium

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. Gelin Zhu, Harald Riedl & Rudolf V. Kamelin "Boraginaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 16 Page 329. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Gelin Zhu, Harald Riedl & Rudolf V. Kamelin "Metaeritrichium". in Flora of China Vol. 16 Page 401. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-26