Achyranthes splendens var. rotundata

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Critically Endangered

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

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 Achyranthes

Herbs, perennial or annual . Stems erect to ascending . Leaves opposite, petiolate ; blade elliptic , ovate to orbiculate, or broadly rhombate, margins entire. Inflorescences terminal and axillary , pedunculate , elongate , many-flowered, simple spikes or few-branched panicles; flowers crowded together at tips , becoming more widely spaced toward base . Flowers bisexual , often becoming deflexed with age; tepals 4 or 5, basally connate , without ornamentation, coriaceous , becoming indurate in fruit, ± glabrous ; filaments basally connate into short tubes or cups ; anthers 4-locular; pseudostaminodes 5; ovary obovoid or turbinate ; ovule 1; style elongate; stigma 1, capitate. Utricles enclosed by and falling with indurate tepals, elliptic or cylindric , membranous, indehiscent. Seeds 1, inverted , obovoid or ovoid , smooth .

Species 8-12: c and se United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, tropical , subtropical , and warm-temperate regions of the Old World.

The groups of plants referred to as Achyranthes and Alternanthera have been subject to considerable nomenclatural confusion, primarily because P. C. Standley (1915) designated Achyranthes repens Linnaeus as the lectotype species of Achyranthes. As a result, species that had been placed in Achyranthes were transferred to Centrostachys Wallich, and species that had been in Alternanthera were transferred to Achyranthes. A. A. Bullock (1957; see also R. Melville 1958) showed that Standley's lectotypification was incorrect and that the type species of Achyranthes is Achyranthes aspera Linnaeus. The generic concepts of Achyranthes and Alternanthera then returned to those prior to 1915.[2]

Habitat

Biome: Terrestrial [3].

Ecology: This shrub occurs at low elevations in open, dry forest remnants and open thickets, on talus or rocky slopes , and on coralline plains (Wagner et al. 1999). The substrate in southwestern O'ahu consists of emerged coral reef with calcareous substrates. (Ref. 251150).

List of Habitats :

•     1     Forest   
  
•     1.5     Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Dry   
  
•     3     Shrubland   
  
•     3.5     Shrubland - Subtropical/Tropical Dry   
  
•     13     Marine Coastal/Supratidal   
  
•     13.3     Marine Coastal/Supratidal - Coastal Sand Dunes   
[more info]

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Achyranthes splendens var. reflecta Hbd.

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Considered by Harold St . John to be a distinct species.[3].

Similar Species

Members of the genus Achyranthes

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 14 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. amaranthoides (Jiang Guo Xian) · A. aspera (Devil's Horsewhip) · A. aspera var. aspera (Devil's Horsewhip) · A. aspera var. pubescens (Devils Horsewhip) · A. atollensis (Hawai'i Chaff Flower) · A. bidentata (Niu Xi) · A. japonica (Japanese Chaff Flower) · A. japonica var. hachijoensis (Japanese Chaff Flower) · A. lanuginosa (Woolly Tidestromia) · A. mutica (Blunt Chaff Flower) · A. splendens (Maui Chaff Flower) · A. splendens rotundata var. rotundata (Maui Chaff Flower) · A. splendens var. rotundata (Round Chaff Flower) · A. splendens var. splendens (Maui Chaff Flower)

More Info

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Further Reading

• (2002). Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database. [Web-based, searchable database] College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources: University of Hawaii at Manoa. http://pdcs.ctahr.hawaii.edu:591/hawnprop/botlist.htm. Accessed: 2002.
• Bornhorst, H.L.; Rauch, F.D. 1994. Native Hawaiian Plants for Landscaping, Conservation, and Reforestation. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii--Hawaii Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. 18p.
• IUCN. 2003. 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 18 November 2003.
• Lum, B. Native Hawaiian Gardens. ¬ Burt Lum, 1996-98. http://www.brouhaha.net/nahele/main.html. Accessed: 2002.
• NatureServe. 2003. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 1.8. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. (Accessed: October 20, 2003).
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2003. Rare plant database. Unpublished.
• USFWS. 1976. Proposed Endangered Status for 1700 U.S. Plants. Federal Register. 41: 24523-24572.
• USFWS. 1985. Two Plants Proposed for Listing as Endangered. Endangered Species Technical Bulletin. 10, 5: 3-4.
• USFWS. 1986. Protection Given to Seven Species. Endangered Species Technical Bulletin. 11, 4: 1, 4-6.
• USFWS. 2001. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species List. March 30, 2000. Honolulu: Unpublished. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. p.19.
• Wagner, W., Herbst, D. and Sohmer S. 1999. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Special Publication 91: 1-1918.
• Wagner, W.L.; Bruegmann, M.M.; Herbst, D.R; Lau, J.Q.C. 1999. Hawaiian Vascular Plants at Risk: 1999. Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum Press Honolulu.
• Kuan Ke-chien. 1979. Amaranthaceae. In: Kung Hsien-wu & Tsien Cho-po, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 25(2): 194241.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.
• Bruegmann, M.M. & Caraway, V. 2003. Achyranthes splendens var. rotundata. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 29January2012.
• IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.

Identifiers

• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-181935
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13890300
• IUCN ID: 606
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1027531

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. Kenneth R. Robertson "Achyranthes". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 406, 435. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. Bruegmann, M.M. & Caraway, V. 2003. Achyranthes splendens var. rotundata. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 29 January 2012. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.