font settings and languages

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia
Languages:

Boerhavia triquetra var. intermedia

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Nyctaginaceae

Herbs, shrubs , trees , or sometimes spiny vines . Leaves opposite, alternate, or whorled ; stipules absent; petiole usually present, well defined; leaf blade simple , herbaceous or slightly fleshy , margin entire. Inflorescences mostly terminal , less often axillary , of cymes, umbels, or verticils , sometimes 1-flowered or fasciculate, often grouped into panicles; bracts often inconspicuous, sometimes forming calyxlike involucre, or large and brightly colored . Flowers bisexual , rarely unisexual or polygamous, actinomorphic . Perianth constricted beyond the ovary, base persistent , closely enclosing ovary which appears inferior, limb petaloid beyond constriction, tubular , funnelform , or campanulate , apex 5-10-lobed, lobes plicate or valvate in bud, persistent or caducous . Disk absent. Stamens (1-) 3-5(-many), hypogynous, free or connate at base, involute in bud; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscence longitudinal . Ovary superior, 1-loculed; ovule 1. Style 1; stigma globose . Fruit an achenelike anthocarp enclosed by persistent perianth, ribbed or winged , often glandular . Seed 1; endosperm present; embryo straight or curved .

About 30 genera and 300 species: tropics and subtropics, mainly in tropical America; six genera (two introduced ) and 13 species (one endemic, three introduced) in China.[1]

Genus Boerhavia

Herbs, annual or perennial , sometimes suffrutescent at base , slender, often glandular , glabrous , or pubescent , from slender and soft or stout, ± woody, and ropelike or fusiform taproot . Stems procumbent , decumbent , ascending , or erect , unarmed , with or without glutinous bands on internodes. Leaves petiolate , pairs unequal in size in each pair; blade thin or thick and slightly fleshy , base symmetric to asymmetric . Inflorescences terminal and axillary , pedunculate or not clearly pedunculate because of repeated branching from distal axils, diffuse , and then usually widely cymose , paniculate , or thyrsiform, terminal portions cymose, racemose, spicate , subumbellate, umbellate , subcapitate , or capitate, rarely borne singly; bracts ± persistent and not accrescent , or deciduous, 1-3 beneath each flower, distinct , lanceolate, minute, thin, translucent . Flowers bisexual , chasmogamous ; perianth radially symmetric or slightly bilaterally symmetric, campanulate or widely funnelform , constricted beyond ovaries, tube abruptly expanded to (4-) 5-lobed limb; stamens 2-8, included or exserted; styles at or extending beyond anthers ; stigmas peltate. Fruits fusiform, clavate , oblong-clavate, obovoid , or obpyramidal , stiffly coriaceous ; ribs (3-) 5, rounded , angular, or winglike, smooth , glabrous or glandular-pubescent ; sulci smooth or rugose , epidermal surface smooth, papillate , or minutely pubescent.

Species ca. 40: warm-temperate and tropical regions worldwide.

Numerous authors , particularly those of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, "corrected" to Boerhaavia Linneaus intentional Latinization (Boerhavia) of Boerhaave's name . Boerhavia sometimes includes Anulocaulis, Commicarpus, and Cyphomeris (F. R. Fosberg 1978). At the species level, there is variation that is often difficult to treat taxonomically, especially among annuals of the Sonoran Desert and the pantropical B . diffusa-B. coccinea complex . Many species probably are highly autogamous (R. Spellenberg 2000). P. C. Standleys publications on the family in North America (1909, 1911, 1918) have been the basis for much of the subsequent floristic efforts , with all authors taking a more conservative approach. Nevertheless, careful examination of Boerhavia fruits indicates that some of the entities that Standley proposed represent distinct taxa. For most species in the flora , identification requires mature fruits. In this treatment, the range of ratios of length to width (l/w) of individual fruits of a species is given as a means to relate shape . Fruits from a number of Boerhavia species exude mucilage when wet (J. M. Willson and R. Spellenberg 1977).

[2]

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Notes

Publishing author : Spellenb. Publication : J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 1(2): 874 2007 [12 Dec 2007] .

Basionym : Nyctaginaceae Boerhavia intermedia M .E.Jones

Basionym author: (M.E.Jones)

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Boerhavia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 19 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

B. anisophylla (Wine Spiderling) · B. capitata (Scarlet Muskflower) · B. coccinea (Red Boerhaavia) · B. coulteri (Coulter Spiderling) · B. diffusa (Red Spiderling) · B. erecta (Erect Spiderling) · B. gracillima (Bush Spiderling) · B. herbstii (Alena) · B. intermedia (Five-Wing Spiderling) · B. linearifolia (Narrow-Leaf Spiderling) · B. mathisiana (Mathis Spiderling) · B. megaptera (Annual Spiderling) · B. pterocarpa (Apache Pass Spiderling) · B. purpurascens (Purple Spiderling) · B. repens (Anena) · B. scandens (Climbing Spiderling) · B. spicata (Creeping Spiderling) · B. triquetra (Slender Spiderling) · B. wrightii (Large Bract Spiderling)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Dequan Lu & Michael G. Gilbert "Nyctaginaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 430. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Richard W. Spellenberg "Boerhavia". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 14, 15, 17, 1. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/29/2012