Ceropegia fortuita
| Ceropegia fortuita | ||||||||||||
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| Ceropegia fortuita | ||||||||||||
| RADyer |
Ceropegia fortuita is a species of plant from the subfamily of the asclepiadoideae (Asclepiadoideae). This species is well characterized by its cup-like overgrown corolla and is therefore somewhat isolated.
features
Appearance, root, stem and leaf
Ceropegia fortuita is a perennial , herbaceous plant. A spherical root tuber , slightly flattened at a height of about 3 cm and a diameter of about 5 cm, is formed as a permanent organ . Occasionally, minor tubers are also formed above the main tubers. Every year a new shoot axis is formed per tuber. The herbaceous and sparsely branched stem axis has a diameter of 1.5 to 2 mm and is usually winding and climbing up to about 1 meter long. However, there are also dwarf forms that stand upright on their own, are significantly smaller than 1 meter and are not twisting.
The opposite arranged leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is 2 to 3 mm long. With a length of up to 25 mm and a width of 12 to 15 mm, the slightly succulent leaf blade is ovate-lanceolate and partially provided with a pointed tooth. The leaf margins and the midrib on the underside of the leaf are sparsely hairy.
Inflorescence and flower
In the natural habitat in Natal, two specimens bloomed in winter. The inflorescences arise laterally at the nodes . The inflorescence stem is 3 to 4 mm long. The inflorescence contains only one to a few flowers that form one after the other within an inflorescence. The flower stalk is about 3 mm long.
The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The five sepals are lanceolate-subulate and 3 to 4 mm long. The five petals are fused in more than three quarters of the length to a straight or only very slightly curved corolla tube ( sympetalie ) smooth on the outside . The 3 cm long corolla is light brown-greenish on the outside and purple on the inside. The "crown bowl" is ellipsoidal with a diameter of about 4 mm and a length of about 6 mm. The "crown basin" gradually merges into the actual crown tube , which has a basal diameter of 1.5 to 2 mm. The corolla tube widens only slightly to a diameter of about 3 mm towards the mouth of the flower. The petal lobes are linear-lanceolate with a length of 10 to 15 mm and a width of 0.5 to 1 mm. The edges of the petal lobes are rolled outwards and they stand upright and are connected at the ends, thus forming a spindle-like cage-like structure. The petal tips are purple-brown in color and finely hairy inside. The interstaminal secondary crown is almost completely fused with the staminal secondary crown to form a cup-like structure that is 1 to 1.5 mm high. The tips of the interstaminal secondary crown are therefore only indicated by weak indentations or bulges of different depths in the rim of the cup. The original "tips" are slightly indented in the middle, the boundaries between the original five corners are indented a little deeper. The staminal inner lateral corolla lobes are only fused with the cup-shaped corolla at the base and are linear-spoon-shaped with a length of about 2 mm and a width of about 0.3 mm. They stand upright, bowing together near the ends, and the tips are bent back again. The pollinia are broadly ovate, pointed at the ends and measure 0.2 × 0.12 mm.
Fruit and seed
Data on fruits and seeds are not yet available.
Similar species
The corolla of Ceropegia fortuita is similar in appearance to the corolla of Ceropegia conrathii , Ceropegia africana and Ceropegia linearis . The cup-like overgrown secondary crown, however, is isolated.
Occurrence
Ceropegia fortuita occurs in KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland . Alexander Lang also lists Zimbabwe among the geographical distribution of this species, but without any evidence. Sabine Reinecke also depict a Ceropegia fortuita on their pages. Presumably they were unpublished collections of their own. In any case, the Flora of Zimbabwe does not list Ceropegia fortuita .
It occurs there in the bushland in warm valleys.
Systematics and taxonomy
The first description of Ceropegia fortuita was in 1944 by Robert Allen Dyer in the Flowering Plants of South Africa , Volume 24, on plate 925. The holotype came from the Valley of a Thousand Hills in Natal (now the province of KwaZulu-Natal) and is at Botanical Research Institute, National Herbarium, Pretoria (South Africa).
Herbert Huber in his revision of the genus Ceropegia 1958 assessed the taxon only as a subspecies of Ceropegia africana : Ceropegia africana subsp. fortuita (RADyer) H. Huber.
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. 216-218)
- 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. 78)
- Herbert H. Huber: Revision of the genus Ceropegia. In: Memórias da Sociedade Broteriana , Volume 12, 1957 [1958], pp. 1–203, Coimbra (p. 114)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexander Lang's website: Ceropegia fortuita ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from July 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Flora on Zimbabwe : Genus Ceropegia
- ↑ The Flowering plants of South Africa: a magazine containing hand-colored figures with descriptions of the flowering plants indigenous to South Africa , 24, 1944, plate 925.