Ceropegia antennifera

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ceropegia antennifera
Systematics
Family : Dog poison family (Apocynaceae)
Subfamily : Silk plants (Asclepiadoideae)
Tribe : Ceropegieae
Sub tribus : Stapeliinae
Genre : Candlestick flowers ( Ceropegia )
Type : Ceropegia antennifera
Scientific name
Ceropegia antennifera
Schltr.

Ceropegia antennifera (syn .: Ceropegia craibii ) is a species of the subfamily of the silk plants (Asclepiadoideae). The species is native to South Africa and is very rare there. It has a very unusual bloom among the candlestick flowers. The tips of the corolla lobes are notfused togetheras is the case with the majority of the Ceropegia species (and thus form the typical cage-like structure in the upper part of the corolla), but spread straight outwards.

features

Vegetative characteristics

Ceropegia antennifera is a perennial, upright growing plant with a flattened tuber that is 2 to 3.5 cm in diameter. The herbaceous , annual and non-twisting shoots reach heights of 15 to 20 cm (12 to 20 cm). As a rule, only one shoot per tuber is formed, rarely two. The shoots are usually unbranched and bare. The internodes are short. The leaves, which attach directly to the shoot, are linear to thread-shaped with bent back edges. They are 20 to 30 mm long and 1 to 2 mm wide.

Inflorescence and flowers

Usually the only inflorescence (per shoot), rarely a second inflorescence is formed, starts directly on the shoot and consists of only one flower. The flower is initially terminal, later it sits on the side. The upright inflorescence stalk is 2.5 to 3 cm long. The hermaphroditic flowers, which are double-coated, are five-fold and zygomorphic . The awl sepals are up to 6 mm long. The five petals are mostly fused to form a tube. The comparatively large corolla is 7.5 to 9.5 cm long (high). It is whitish on the outside with purple vertical stripes. It is hairy inside. The ovoid, up to 4 mm in diameter, gradually merges into the corolla tube. Towards the outer end it widens in a funnel shape to 3 to 4 mm in cross section. The petals are whitish inside, 5 - 6 cm long and linear-lanceolate in shape. In contrast to most of the other species of the genus Ceropegia, they are not connected to each other at the tips, but freely spread apart at an acute to right angle to the longitudinal axis of the flower. The lamina are curved outward along the midrib, the tips can be swollen at the outer end. The funnel-shaped opening of the flowers and the basal parts of the insides of the corolla lobes are dark brown-red, the remaining parts of the lobes are green. The lower half of the tip and the funnel-shaped flower opening are covered with up to 3 mm long, purple-colored club hair. The secondary crown is colored black-violet and sessile. The interstaminal corolla lobes form egg-shaped pockets with serrated edges; they are 1.5 mm long and hairy. The staminal corolla lobes are linear and tapering to a point. They are 3 to 4 mm long, stand upright and bow together. However, the tips are bent back.

Fruits and seeds

The paired follicles are slender, spindle-shaped and are at an acute angle to each other.

Geographical distribution and ecology

The type was found in the grasslands at "4100 feet" (approx. 1340 m) altitude near Newcastle , KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa. It is a very rare species that is known only from a few locations, the type locality of Ceropegia antennifera and the type locality of Ceropegia craibii . However, it has not been proven at the type location since it was first found.

At the type site of Ceropegia craibii , the plant sprouts from the tuber every year after the summer rains at the end of October or beginning of November. By the end of November or the beginning of December, the usually only flower bud that opens by mid-December appears. However, the flowering period can drag on until February. However, each flower only stays open for one or two days. The plants seem to depend on one or more species of very small flies for pollinators. The flowers are rarely fertilized; So far, no fruit has been found in the habitat. In culture, it was possible to reproduce by seeds using artificial fertilization of the flowers. When cultivated, the plants produced one or two flowers per season. With increasing drought from the end of April to the beginning of May, the shoot begins to die off. First the leaves fall off, and the stem dries up by the end of May. The fruits develop to full size very slowly within a few weeks. However, it can take up to six months for the seeds to be released (observation in culture). The plants that developed from sown seeds bloomed the following year.

The soil at the site of the type is flat and loose, and dries quickly after rain. The vegetation is sparse and every few years the dry grass or plant material, which often accumulates over several years, burns down. The tubers apparently survive these sporadic fires without damage. The species may even "need" these occasional fires, as otherwise it cannot compete with the fast-growing grasses.

Systematics and taxonomy

The species was scientifically described for the first time by Rudolf Schlechter in 1895. After that, no further specimen of this species was found for over 100 years. In 2001 Janine E. Victor described a very similar plant about 100 km from the type location of C. antennifera as the new species Ceropegia craibii . The species is named after Charles Craib (1954–2012), a South African plant collector and author. It differs mainly in the flower morphology of C. antennifera , and it is usually much smaller in the habitat (4 to 6 cm high). Ulrich Meve treats this taxon as a synonym for C. antennifera , since the flower morphology of many Ceropegia species is quite variable. He considers the two occurrences to be two relic populations of the same species.

supporting documents

literature

  • Ulrich Meve: Ceropegia . In: Focke Albers, Ulrich Meve (Hrsg.): Succulents Lexicon Volume 3 Asclepiadaceae (silk plants) . Pp. 61–107, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-8001-3982-0 (p. 64)
  • R. Allen Dyer: Ceropegia, Brachystelma and Riocreuxia in southern Africa. VIII, 242 pp., Rotterdam, Balkema, 1983 ISBN 90-6191-227-X
  • Charles Craib and Gerhard Marx: Ceropegia Craibii Found Following Fire. In: Cactus and Succulent Journal , Vol. 82, No. 2, 2010, pp. 53-58. Summary at bioone.org
  • Janine E. Victor: Plant portraits: 430. Ceropegia craibii (Apocynaceae). In: Curtis's Botanical Magazine , Volume 18, No. 4, 2001, 210-213.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dyer (1983: 191)
  2. ^ Rudolf Schlechter: Contributions to the knowledge of South African Asclepiadeen. In: Botanical Yearbooks for Systematics, Plant History and Plant Geography , Volume 20, Beiblatt No. 51, 1895, pp. 1-56, Leipzig. Online at www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Web links