Blutaparon rigidum

• Overview
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Extinct

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 Blutaparon

Herbs, annual or perennial . Stems procumbent or creeping . Leaves opposite, amplexicaul , sessile; blade linear to narrowly obovate , thick, fleshy , margins entire, glabrous except in axils. Inflorescences solitary, terminal , pedunculate , globose or cylindric heads ; bracts and bracteoles chartaceous . Flowers bisexual ; tepals 5, distinct ; stamens 5; filaments connate basally; anthers 2-locular; pseudostaminodes absent; ovule 1; styles 0.2 mm; stigmas 2-3, subulate . Utricles somewhat compressed , broadly ovoid , coriaceous , indehiscent. Seeds 1, dark brown, orbicular .

Species 4: mostly littoral in tropical and subtropical America (including Galápagos Islands), Asia (s Japan), w Africa.[2]

Taxonomy

Unambiguous Synonyms

1. Achyranthes Rigida
2. Achyranthes rigida (B. L. Rob. & Greenm.) Standl.
3. Alternanthera rigida B. L. Rob. & Greenm.
4. Lithophila rigida (B. L. Rob. & Greenm.) Standl.
5. Philoxerus rigidus (B. L. Rob. & Greenm.) Howell

Notes

Publishing author : Mears Publication : Taxon 31: 116 1982 Basionym author: (B .L.Rob. & Greenm.) Basionym: Amaranthaceae Alternanthera rigida Robins.et GreenmanBasionym author: (Robinson & Greenm.)

Similar Species

Members of the genus Blutaparon

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 8 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

B. brevifolium · B. portulacoides · B. portulacoides var. commersonii · B. repens · B. rigidum · B. vermiculare (Silverhead) · B. vermicularis · B. wrightii

More Info

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Further Reading

• Tye, A. 1999. Revision of the threat status of the endemic flora of Galapagos: a preliminary analysis. In: Galagagos Report 3. WWF, Fundacion Natura. Quito.
• Kuan Ke-chien. 1979. Amaranthaceae. In: Kung Hsien-wu & Tsien Cho-po, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 25(2): 194241.
• Mears, J. A. 1982. A summary of Blutaparon Rafinesque including species earlier known as Philoxerus R. Brown. Taxon 31: 111-117.

Notes

Contributors

• Tye, A. 2000. In IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCNRedList.org. Downloaded July 19, 2008.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 7149226
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:910139-1
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 910139-1
• IUCN ID: 39087
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1025606

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 "Blutaparon". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 406, 456. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

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