Brachistus
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Brachistus is a plant genus of the family of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). It consists of three types that are common in Mexico and Central America .
description
Vegetative characteristics
The Brachistus styles are shrubs or 2-6 (rarely to 9) m high and at the base up to 7 cm thick trees . The noticeable hair consists of simple or head-shaped trichomes , the latter consist of a long stem and a single-celled head and are elongated or cup-shaped, in exceptional cases branched trichomes can also be found.
The leaves are often irregularly shaped, the leaf blades are ovate or broadly ovate, 5 to 19 × 3.5 to 11 cm in size. The tip is pointed, the base cut off or heart-shaped. The leaf stalks are 1.5 to 7 cm long.
Inflorescences and flowers
The inflorescences standing in leaf axils are clusters of (3) 5 to 10 (15) flowers , which are occasionally on pedicels up to 3 mm long. Only in exceptional cases do the flowers stand individually.
The small flowers are odorless and stand on 8 to 19 mm pedicels. The calyx is 1.5 to 5.8 mm long, the edge is pentagonal or provided with five teeth or lobes. These are triangular and as long as the cup-shaped corolla tube or reduced to very short teeth. The yellow crown , traversed with yellow-green nerves, is 7 to 18 mm long and divided into five segments, which are longer than the bell-shaped corolla tube, or slightly shorter than this. The segments are about twice as long as they are wide, the edges are slightly curved. In the corolla tube there is a ring of trichomes in the middle .
The stamens of the stamens are approximately in the middle of the corolla tube or a little higher fused with this, the anthers are 2.2 to 3 mm long and longer than the free-standing part of the stamens.
Fruits and seeds
The fruits are spherical or almost spherical, red to orange berries that can be dented, the pericarp is fleshy with a few stone cells. The berries are about 10 mm in diameter and contain about 100 seeds . The fruits are completely or almost completely surrounded by the enlarging calyx. The seeds are almost spherical-flattened and indented (0.9) 1 to 1.4 mm long, the surface is structured like a honeycomb with flat cells. The embryo is curved into a circle, the cotyledons are shorter than the rest of the embryo, the endosperm is sufficiently pronounced.
Occurrence
The species of the genus grow on mountains in the rainforests of Mexico and Central America at heights of 800 to 2,000 m. Brachistus stramonifolius is the most widespread species; Brachistus affinis, on the other hand, is likely endemic to an area in Belize .
Systematics
The genus consists of three types:
- Brachistus affinis (Morton) D'Arcy, JL Gentry & Averett
- Brachistus nelsonii (Fernald) D'Arcy, JL Gentry & Averett
- Brachistus stramonifolius (Kunth) Miers
The type species is Brachistus stramonifolius . For a long time (until around 1969, when Armando Hunziker assigned the species as an independent section to the Witheringia ), the delimitations of the genus were rather imprecisely defined, so that species of the genera Paprika ( Capsicum ), Athenaea and Witheringia were often assigned to it. In 1981 the species were again granted genus status, for the first time with the scope that is valid today.
literature
- Armando T. Hunziker: The Genera of Solanaceae . ARG Gantner Verlag KG, Ruggell, Liechtenstein 2001. ISBN 3-904144-77-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b W. G. D'Arcy, JL Gentry and JE Averett: Recognition of Brachistus (Solanaceae) In: Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden , Volume 68, 1981. Pages 226-227.