font settings and languages

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

Amsonia fugatei

(San Antonio Bluestar)

Overview

[ Back to top ]

Threatened
Threat status

Common Names

[ Back to top ]

Common Names in English:

Fugate's Amsonia, Kearney's Bluestar, San Antonio Bluestar

Description

[ Back to top ]

Family Apocynaceae

Trees , shrubs , or vines , rarely subshrubs or herbs, with latex or rarely watery juice. Leaves simple , opposite, rarely whorled or alternate, pinnately veined; stipules absent or rarely present. Inflorescences cymose , terminal or axillary , with bracteoles. Flowers bisexual , 5- [or 4]-merous, actinomorphic . Calyx 5- or rarely 4-partite, quincuncial, basal glands usually present. Corolla 5- or rarely 4-lobed, salverform , funnelform , urceolate , or rarely rotate, lobes overlapping to right or left, rarely valvate . Stamens 5 or rarely 4; filaments short; anthers mostly sagittate , free or connivent into a cone adherent to pistil head , dehiscing longitudinally, base rounded , cordate, sagittate, or prolonged into an empty spur; pollen granular ; disc ringlike or cup-shaped, 2-5-lobed, or absent. Ovaries superior, rarely half-inferior, connate or distinct , 1- or 2-locular; ovules (1 or) 2-numerous per locule. Style 1; pistil head capitate, conical , or lampshade-shaped, base stigmatic, apex 2-cleft and not stigmatic . Fruit a berry, drupe, capsule, or follicle. Seeds with or without coma; endosperm thick and often horny , scanty, sometimes absent; embryo straight or nearly so, cotyledons often large, radicle terete .

About 155 genera and 2000 species distributed primarily in the tropics and subtropics, poorly represented in the temperate regions . Of the 44 genera and 145 species present in China, one genus and 38 species are endemic, and nearly 95% of the taxa grow in the southern and southwestern portions of the country.

Fruit type is highly diversified in the family , and it is diagnostic of many genera. Genera 1-4 produce 1, 2-celled berries from a flower; genus 5 produces 2, 1-celled berries from a flower; 6 and 7 produce mostly fleshy follicles containing deeply indented seeds with ruminate endosperm; 8 has follicles and winged seeds; 9 produces follicles and seeds with 2 comas; 10-12 have follicles with globose seeds; 13-18 have drupes mostly with fleshy mesocarp; 19 has samaroid fruit; 20 has spiny capsules with seeds winged all around; and 21-44 have free or fused follicles and comose seeds. Double flowers are known only from cultivated forms of Nerium oleander, Tabernaemontana divaricata, and Wrightia religiosa.

Plants of the Apocynaceae are often poisonous and are rich in alkaloids or glycosides, especially in the seeds and latex. Some species are valuable sources of medicine, insecticides , fibers, and rubber.[1]

Genus Amsonia

Herbs annual or perennial , erect , with latex, without stolons. Leaves alternate, membranous. Cymes thyrsoid or corymbose , terminal . Flowers blue or bluish. Sepals narrowly acuminate, usually without glands . Corolla blue or bluish, salverform ; tube cylindric , dilated above middle , villous inside; lobes overlapping to left. Stamens inserted inside dilated portion of corolla tube; anthers ovate or oblong , free from pistil head , base rounded . Carpels united by a filiform style; ovules numerous , biseriate on each placenta. Pistil head with a basal membranous appendage. Follicles 2, cylindric-fusiform, erect. Seeds cylindric, end obliquely truncate ; coma absent.

About 20 species: North America, SE Asia; one species in China.[2]

Physical Description

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: April, May. • Flower Color: near white, purple, white

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 18-24" tall.

Biology

[ Back to top ]

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 12-15" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full sun .

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Notes

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

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Amsonia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 62 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. amsonia · A. angustifolia · A. angustifolia var. texana · A. arenaria · A. arizonica · A. biformis · A. brevifolia · A. ciliata (Fringed Blue-Star) · A. ciliata filifolia · A. ciliata texana · A. ciliata var. ciliata (Fringed Bluestar) · A. ciliata var. tenuifolia (Fringed Bluestar) · A. ciliata var. texana (Texas Bluestar) · A. ciliata var. filiformis · A. eastwoodiana · A. eastwoodiana var. stenophylla (Eastwood's Bluestar) · A. elliptica (Amsonia) · A. filiformis · A. fugatei (San Antonio Bluestar) · A. glaberrima · A. grandiflora (Arizona Bluestar) · A. hirtella · A. hubrechtii (Arkansas Blue Star) · A. hubrectii · A. hubrichtii (Narrow Leaf Blue Star) · A. illustris (Great Plains Slimpod) · A. jonesii (Jones Blue-Star) · A. kearneyana (Kaerney´s Bluestar) · A. lanata · A. latifolia · A. longiflora (Tubular Bluestar) · A. longiflora var. longiflora (Tubular Bluestar) · A. longiflora var. salpignantha (Tubular Bluestar) · A. longifolia · A. ludoviciana (Louisiana Blue Star) · A. montana 'Short Stack' · A. orientalis (Blue Star) · A. palmeri (Palmer's Blue-Star) · A. peeblesii (Peebles' Blue-Star) · A. pogonosepala · A. repens (Creeping Blue-Star) · A. rigida (Stiff Blue-Star) · A. salicifolia · A. salicifolia var. salicifolia · A. salpignantha · A. salpignantha var. salpignantha · A. salpignatha · A. 'Seaford Skies' (Hybrid Amsonia) · A. sinensis · A. standleyi · A. tabernae-montana · A. tabernaemontana (Eastern Blue Dogbane) · A. tabernaemontana 'Blue Ice' (Woodland Blue Star) · A. tabernaemontana 'Montana' (Woodland Blue Star) · A. tabernaemontana var. gattingeri (Eastern Bluestar) · A. tabernaemontana var. salicifolia (Woodland Blue Star) · A. tabernaemontana var. tabernaemontana (Eastern Bluestar) · A. texana · A. tharpii (Feltleaf Bluestar) · A. tomentosa (Eastwood's Bluestar) · A. tomentosa var. stenophylla (Narrowleaf Blue Star) · A. tristis

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 16, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Bingtao Li, Antony J. M. Leeuwenberg & David J. Middleton "Apocynaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 16 Page 143. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Amsonia". in Flora of China Vol. 16 Page 156. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2009-09-16