Ceropegia bowkeri
| Ceropegia bowkeri | ||||||||||||
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Ceropegia bowkeri (from Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Volume 89, Plate. 5407, 1863 = ssp. Bowkeri ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ceropegia bowkeri | ||||||||||||
| Harv. |
Ceropegia bowkeri is a species of the subfamily of the silk plant family (Asclepiadoideae). The species occurs or occurred in South Africa; one subspecies is already extinct.
features
Vegetative characteristics
Ceropegia is a perennial , herbaceous , upright plant with fleshy, thickened roots. One to three, 20 to 50 cm high shoots sprout from the rhizome annually, are not branched and not hairy. The stalkless leaf blades , which attach directly to the shoots, are linear to linear-lanceolate, pointed and 4 to 13.5 cm long and 2 to 3 mm wide.
Inflorescence and flowers
The inflorescence attaches directly to the side of the shoots; it contains only one flower. The flower stalk is up to two inches long. The zygomorphic , hermaphrodite flowers are five-fold and have a double flower envelope. The awl sepals are 4 to 8 mm long. The five petals are fused in the lower half to form a 3.5 to 6 cm long (high), ascending, almost straight, externally smooth corolla tube ( sympetalie ). It is greenish white on the outside, greenish on the inside with an often diffuse purple-colored pattern. The inflated base of the corolla tube, the corolla is spherical to ovoid and has a diameter of 5 to 8 mm. It goes continuously into the actual corolla tube; here the minimum diameter is 2 to 3 mm. At the outer end, the tube expands to 3 to 4 mm. The corolla lobes narrowed at the base are linear to narrow elliptical in shape and are 18 to 22 mm long. They are completely bent back along the midrib and hang freely. They move with every breath of wind. There is a series of depressions or pits on either side of the midrib. There is a purple pattern on a green background. The lamina are hairy whitish, the edges are covered with yellowish or purple, club-shaped hair. The secondary crown is almost sessile and fused in a cup-shaped manner at the base. The hairy interstaminal (outer) corolla lobes are 1.5 mm long, triangular and erect. They are deeply cut in the middle at the outer end and form two narrow, triangular, pointed extensions. The staminal minor corolla lobes are also 1.5 mm long, but are lanceolate-linear in shape. They bow together at the outer end.
Fruits and seeds
The paired follicles are spindle-shaped and about 5 cm long. The seeds are narrow-egg-shaped and measure 3 mm in length and 1.75 mm in width.
Similar species
The species is very similar to Ceropegia dinteri . C. dinteri , however, has a tuber, while C. bowkeri has fleshy, thickened roots. Also Ceropegia tomentosa has a certain similarity. Here the petal tips don't hang down, but stand upright or are slightly splayed out. This species has not been found since it was first described and is probably extinct.
Geographical distribution and ecology
The species occurs only in the South African province of Eastern Cape (Eastern Cape) in the districts of Sarah Baartman and Chris Hani ago.
Taxonomy
The taxon was first described by William Henry Harvey in 1859 in "Thesaurus Capensis" Volume 1, p. 9. In 1866, Joseph Dalton Hooker described another, apparently closely related, taxon as Ceropegia sororia after a manuscript name by Harvey. Herbert Huber synonymized the two taxa in his " Revision of the genus Ceropegia ", while Robert Dyer retained the two taxa as subspecies in his comprehensive work " Ceropegia , Brachystelma and Riocreuxia in southern Africa" . Ulrich Meve in the succulent lexicon reunited the two taxa, and the " Plant List " also treats Ceropegia sororia as a synonym for C. bowkeri . Janine Victor and Anthony Dold, on the other hand, maintain the separation into two subspecies. It is basically a purely academic dispute, because the bowkeri subspecies is very likely extinct.
Danger
The subspecies Ceropegia bowkeri ssp. bowkeri Harv. has not been found at the type location since the first description, despite an intensive search by experts recently. The area has been destroyed by intensive use and soil erosion . At least part of the original area is now built over by the suburbs of Port Alfred . Also in the wider area there were no more plants of this subspecies in still intact biotopes. It is considered extinct.
supporting documents
literature
- Robert Allen Dyer: Ceropegia, Brachystelma and Riocreuxia in southern Africa. VIII, 242 pp., Rotterdam, Balkema, 1983 ISBN 90-6191-227-X (pp. 141-146)
- Herbert H. Huber: Revision of the genus Ceropegia. In: Memórias da Sociedade Broteriana , Volume 12, 1957, pp. 1–203, Coimbra (description by C. bowkeri pp. 135/6)
- 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. 68)
- William T. Thiselton-Dyer (Ed.): Flora capensis: being a systematic description of the plants of the Cape Colony, Caffraria, & Port Natal (and neighboring territories). Volume 4, Section I Vacciniaceae - Gentianeae. 1168 pp., London, Reeve 1905-1909 ( Ceropegia bowkeri p. 808/9, Ceropegia sororia p. 809/10; Part 5: pp. 673-864 was published in 1908) Online at biodiversitylibrary.org
On-line
Individual evidence
- ↑ Red List of South African Plants - Ceropegia tomentosa
- ↑ William Henry Harvey: Thesaurus capensis: or, illustrations of the South African flora, being figures and brief descriptions of South African plants, selected from the Dublin University Herbarium. Volume 1, 68 pp. + 100 plates, Dublin, Hodges, Smith & Co. and London, John van Voorst, 1859. Online at biodiversitylibrary.org (p.9) and online at biodiversitylibrary.org (plate 4)
- ^ A b Janine E. Victor, Anthony Patrick Dold: Threatened plants of the Albany Center of Floristic Endemism, South Africa. In: South African Journal of Science , Volume 99, 2003, 437–446 PDF ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Red List of South African Plants - Ceropegia bowkeri Harv. subsp. bowkeri
