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Alternanthera areschougii

Overview

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Vulnerable

Threat status

Interesting Facts

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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 Alternanthera

Herbs or subshrubs , annual or perennial . Stems prostrate , decumbent , ascending , erect , or floating, indumentum of simple trichomes . Leaves opposite, sessile or petiolate ; blade lanceolate to ovate , ovate-rhombic, or obovate-rhombic, margins entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal , sessile or pedunculate , several-flowered cylindric spikes or globose heads , without immediately subtending leaves; bracts and bracteoles scarious . Flowers bisexual ; tepals 5, distinct ; stamens 3-5; filaments connate basally into tube or short cup ; pseudostaminodes 5, alternating with stamens; ovule 1; style 1, ca. 0.2 mm; stigma capitate or rarely 2-lobed. Utricles compressed , ovoid or obovoid , indehiscence. Seeds 1, reddish brown, lenticular or ovoid-oblong.

Species ca. 80: primarily American tropics and subtropics, some in Asia, Africa, and Australia.[2]

Habitat

Ecology: A terrestrial herb of the coast and dry valleys , found at an elevational range of 0–1,000 m. [3].

List of Habitats :

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : R.E.Fr. Publication : Ark. Bot. 16(12, reimpr.): 17 1920

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Alternanthera

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 33 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. bettzichiana (Calicoplant) · A. bettzickiana (Baptist Plant) · A. bettzickiana 'Brilliantissima' (Joyweed) · A. brasiliana (Brazil Chaff-Flower) · A. caracasana (Mat Chaff-Flower) · A. crucis (West Indian Joyweed) · A. dentata 'Purple Knight' (Calico Plant) · A. dentata 'Red Marble' (Calico Plant) · A. dentata 'Rubiginosa' (Calico Plant) · A. echinocephala (Seaurchin Joyweed) · A. ficoidea 'Aurea' (Chartreuse Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'Chartreuse' (Chartreuse Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'Grenadine' (Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'New Burgundy' (Baptist Plant) · A. ficoidea 'Purple Threadleaf' (Baptist Plant) · A. ficoidea 'Rosea Nana' (Dwarf Rose Josephs Coat) · A. ficoidea 'Snow Carpet' (Brazilian Snow Flower) · A. flavescens (Yellow Chaff-Flower) · A. flavogrisea (Alternanthera) · A. hassleriana (Hassler's Alternanthera) · A. lanuginosa (Woolly Tidestromia) · A. maritima (Beach Alternanthera) · A. palmeri (Palmer's Joyweed) · A. paronichyoides (Smooth Chaff-Flower) · A. paronichyoides var. amazonica (Smooth Joyweed) · A. paronichyoides var. paronichyoides (Smooth Joyweed) · A. philoxeroides (Alligator Weed) · A. pungens (Creeping Chaffweed) · A. reineckii (Red Hygrophila) · A. sessilis (Sessile Chaff-Flower) · A. tenella (Alternanthera Snow Ball) · A. tenella tenella (Sanguinaria) · A. trigyna (Island Joyweed)

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 02, 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. Steven E. Clemants "Alternanthera". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 406, 435, 447. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Montúfar, R. & Pitman, N. 2003. Alternanthera areschougii. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 7/22/2012