Anthocleista

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Anthocleista
Anthocleista grandiflora

Anthocleista grandiflora

Systematics
Euasterids I
Order : Enzianartige (Gentianales)
Family : Gentian Family (Gentianaceae)
Tribe : Potalieae
Sub tribus : Potaliinae
Genre : Anthocleista
Scientific name
Anthocleista
Afzel. ex R.Br.

Anthocleista is a genus within the family of the Gentian family (Gentianaceae). The 15or so species are common in tropical Africa , Madagascar and the Comoros . Some Anthocleista species (especially the four West African tree species) have the English-language trivial names "Cabbage Tree" or "Candelabrum Tree" or French trivial names "Arbre chou" or "Papae um eve".

description

Foliage leaves of Anthocleista grandiflora
Flower of Anthocleista grandiflora

Appearance and leaves

Anthocleista species grow as small to large trees that reach heights of 1 to 35 meters or as shrubs or lianas ( Anthocleista laxiflora , Anthocleista obanensis , Anthocleista scandens ). All parts of the plant are bare. Small colleteren (glands) stand in a row in the axils of the leaves, bracts and sepals. On the branches can, for example, in Anthocleista djalonensis , thorns are, but in many ways they are missing.

In the case of the opposite leaves , those of a pair can be the same or different. The leaves have a petiole or are sessile. In the sitting leaves, the base of the blades or the petioles are eyed. The often relatively large (up to 2.5 meters), but smaller, simple, soft and ephemeral or leathery leaf blades of the lianas are often membranous, paper-like and brittle or leathery when they are dry. The smooth or tiny notched edges of the leaves can be bent back. The lateral nerves can be clearly visible. There are intrapetiolare Stipules present.

Inflorescences and flowers

Many flowers stand together in terminal, upright, almost always dichasial, one to five-fold branched, zymous inflorescences ; they break easily at the branches when dry and sometimes hang when they bear fruit. Of the bracts , the lower ones are similar to foliage and the others are usually very small, triangular or egg-shaped. With the species of the African mainland usually only one flower of an inflorescence opens.

The sweet-smelling, hermaphrodite flowers are radial symmetry . The four mostly free or sometimes fused ( Anthocleista laxiflora ) sepals are arranged opposite to one another. The inner two sepals are usually edged and pressed against the corolla tube and later on the fruit; they are expanded when dry and enlarged under the fruit. The mostly green or cream-colored, rarely partially orange-colored sepals are more or less circular, concave with mostly rounded upper end. Depending on the species, there are different numbers, 8 to 16 petals . The petals are fused into an approximately cylindrical, thick, fleshy corolla tube, which is not narrowed when the flower is fully developed and widens more or less towards the throat. The corolla lobes are usually turned to the right in the flower bud. The 8 to 16 corolla lobes, which are spread out or curved back in the open flowers, are elliptical to lanceolate with a blunt end and a smooth edge. The white, cream-colored, violet, blue-violet, lilac-colored or sometimes light yellow petals are often lighter in the area of ​​the corolla lobes than the corolla tube, which is sometimes green. There is only the outer circle with 8 to 16 identical stamens ; these protrude from the corolla tube. The short or very short stamens are usually shorter than the anthers and mostly fused completely or over two thirds of their length to form a short tube and arise near the upper end of the corolla tube. The white to cream-colored, often partly green, sometimes brownish anthers are upright, lanceolate with a blunt or sometimes pointed top and usually an arrow-shaped base. The two parallel counters open completely through a longitudinal slot. This large number of petals and stamens is a specialty within the Gentianaceae family. The ovary stands in a fleshy disc. The above constant, mostly four-chambered (only potalioides Anthocleista two-chamber) ovary is ovate-cylindrical, cylindrical to obovate-cylindrical. In each ovary chamber there is a large, bilobed placenta with many ovules on both sides. The thick stylus is about as long as the corolla tube and remains for a short time after the corolla has fallen off. The relatively large, obovate-cylindrical scar is, depending on the type, slightly notched to bilobed at the upper end and often slightly flattened on the side.

Fruits and seeds

The many-seeded, hard berries are spherical to ellipsoidal with a rounded and sometimes pointed top. The mostly thick fruit skin is dark to light green or yellow when ripe. The partitions (septa) are thin.

The medium to dark brown, relatively small seeds are obliquely ovate-spherical or irregularly polyhedral and flattened. The embryo is straight.

Systematics and distribution

Anthocleista grandiflora
Habit of Anthocleista procera

The genus Anthocleista was discovered in 1818 with a collection from Sierra Leone by Adam Afzelius in Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire , App. 5, p. 449 drawn up; Afzelius gave the name but did not publish a description. A valid first description was made by Robert Brown in the same year in Observations systematical and geographical on the herbarium collected by Professor Christian Smith, in the vicinity of the Congo: During the expedition ... command of Captain Tuckey in the year 1816 , App. 449, a differentiation was made to the closely related genus Potalia . Type species is Anthocleista nobilis G.Don , since George Don published the first description of a species of this genus in 1838. The only monograph of the genus Anthocleista created Anthonius Josephus Maria Leeuwenberg : The Loganiaceae of Africa , 1. Anthocleista , In: Acta Botanica Neerlandica , Volume 10, 1961, pp. 1-53 in which 14 species are listed. The generic name Anthocleista is made up of the Greek words anthos for flower and cleistos for closed.

The genus Anthocleista belongs to the subtribe Potaliinae in the tribe Potalieae within the Gentianaceae family . It was previously placed in the Loganiaceae or Potaliaceae family . The paleotropic genus Anthocleista is closely related to the neotropical genus Potalia ; they differ, for example, by four- and two-chambered ovaries (exception two-chambered with Anthocleista potalioides ).

The range includes tropical Africa (about twelve species), as well as Madagascar (four species, three of which are only there) and the Comoros (one species).

There are around 15 species of Anthocleista :

use

Anthocleista species are used in many ways in their area of distribution . Plant parts are used in traditional medicine.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g A. JM Leeuwenberg: Loganiaceae , In: Flora Zambesiaca , Volume 7, Part 1, 1983, from p. 327.
  2. ^ A b c d e Lena Struwe, Victor A. Albert: Gentianaceae: Systematics and Natural History , Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-521-80999-3 . Lena Struwe: Anthocleista , pp. 195–196
  3. ↑ a b datasheet at An Introduction to the Trees from the North of the Republic of Congo from The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh website .
  4. ↑ a b c d Anthocleista Afzel : JG Baker: Flora of Tropical Africa , Volume 4, 1904, Part 1, p. 503.
  5. ↑ a b JJFE de Wilde: A new species of Anthocleista (Gentianaceae) from Gabon , In: Novitates Gabonenses 73. , Blumea , Volume 56, 2011, pp. 1-3. doi : 10.3767 / 000651911X557028
  6. ↑ Entry in Tropicos . last accessed on December 12, 2012
  7. ^ EA Bruce: Notes on the African Species of the Genus Anthocleista Afzl. ex R. Br. , In: Kew Bulletin, Volume 10, No. 1, 1955, p. 45.
  8. ^ Anthocleista in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  9. ↑ Anthocleista species from p. 92 in Gabriëlla Harriët Schmelzer, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim: Medicinal plants 1 , Volume 11 of Plant resources of tropical Africa , PROTA, 2008. ISBN 978-9-0578-2204-9
  10. ↑ Ethnobotany of gentians at Gentian Research Network . , last accessed on December 12, 2012

Web links

Commons : Anthocleista  - collection of images, videos and audio files