Conostegia
| Conostegia | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Conostegia | ||||||||||||
| D. Don |
Conostegia is a genus of plantsfromthe black- mouthed family (Melastomataceae). It includes approximately 42 to 45 types of shrubs and small trees found in tropical America .
description
Vegetative characteristics
The species of the genus Conostegia are shrubs or small trees. Only a few species, such as Conostegia volcanalis , can reach a height of up to 20 m. The young twigs are (indistinctly) square or more rarely cylindrical. Stipules are missing. The simple, undivided leaves are opposite. The herbaceous to almost leathery leaf blades are usually stalked, rarely almost sessile, (2.5–) 5–25 (–36) cm long and usually ovate to elliptical, more rarely obovate, lanceolate or linear. They have 3–5 (–9) arched main nerves towards the tip of the leaf, the lateral ones branching off either directly at the leaf base or slightly above it from the midrib. These main nerves are connected to one another in the form of a ladder by lateral nerves. The spreading edge is serrated or serrated with entire to wavy margins. In some species, such as Conostegia setosa , a pair of myrmecodomata is present at or near the base of the blade on the upper side of the leaf . These are elongated, bubble-shaped swellings of the leaf blade that house ants . The branches and leaves are glabrous or hairy to varying degrees, often with star hair .
The mostly brownish, moderately dense wood has a fine surface structure. It is moderately heavy, moderately hard and has a poor durability.
Generative characteristics
The inflorescences are terminal, mostly floriferous, in some species up to 30 cm long panicles . Cover sheets are provided.
The mostly stalked, rarely sessile hermaphrodite , radial symmetry flowers are 4–12 numbered. The flower buds are spherical, egg-shaped, ellipsoidal, pear-shaped or obovate. The mostly thick-walled flower cup is cup-shaped, bell-shaped or hemispherical. The inflorescence and the stamens are inserted at the upper end of the flower cup on a vascular bundle ring. The calyx is fused into a conical or hemispherical "kalyptra", which separates at a circular seam when it blossoms and falls completely like a lid. This feature is the easiest way to distinguish the Conostegia species from related genera. The free, white to pink, more rarely lavender colored, bald, multi-veined petals are often somewhat asymmetrical and obverse-shaped to triangular in outline. They are too thickened towards the base and usually rounded or truncated at the tip, sometimes also edged and even pointed in Conostegia cinnamomea . In terms of flower size, the range extends from Conostegia cinnamomea with 3–3.5 mm long petals to Conostegia macrantha with 14–16 mm long petals. In each flower there are 8–36 (–96) free, similar, bare stamens with thin stamens. The two typically yellow counters each consist of two pollen sacks. They are egg-shaped or oblong to sub-like, usually compressed laterally and open with a common pore that is either located at the tip or is slightly shifted towards the center of the flower. The connective has neither an appendage nor an extension. The 4-25-fächerige ovary is completely fused with the flower cups and under constant. Its mostly hairless, slightly raised tip is often extended into a cone or collar that surrounds the base of the individual, columnar, bald stylus . The stigma is head-like or truncated, more rarely point-shaped and in some species forms a broad, shield-shaped ring made of laterally flattened lobes. In each ovary compartment there are numerous ovules on the central angled placenta .
The fruits are juicy berries that, as far as they are known so far, are purple to black-purple or blue-black in color when ripe. The numerous obovate or irregularly pyramidal, slightly angular seeds are smooth or rarely somewhat rough. They do not contain endosperms .
Chromosomes
All of the species investigated so far, namely Conostegia arborea , C. icosandra , C. montana , C. oerstediana , C. subcrustulata , C. superba and C. xalapensis , agree with one another with regard to the number of chromosomes . Either a haploid chromosome set with n = 17 or a diploid with 2n = 34 was found. The haploid basic number of the genus thus results in x = 17.
distribution
The closed distribution area of the genus extends along the mountains and in their foothills from the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico across Central America and the western slope of the Andes from Colombia and Ecuador to the eastern Andean slope of Ecuador and Peru . There are isolated subareas in the foothills of the Andes in the north of Colombia and Venezuela , in the Sierra de la Neblina in the Venezuelan-Brazilian border region and in the state of Bahia in the east of Brazil . In addition, Conostegia occurs with several species in the Greater Antilles and with two species in the Lesser Antilles .
Conostegia has the greatest biodiversity in southern Central America and northwestern South America . In Costa Rica, for example, 27 species have been identified since the last cultivation of the flora, i.e. more than 60 percent of the recognized species.
habitat
Most species of Conostegia are found in different types of tropical rainforests . The spectrum ranges from moist to wet lowland rainforests to mountain rainforests and cloud forests . Few species in the mountains reach up to 2400 m above sea level , the Central American Conostegia macrantha even up to 2700 m. In the higher mountain regions, Conostegia species often grow in evergreen oak forests . Only a few species penetrate into regions with a relatively dry climate. An example of this is Conostegia xalapensis , which not only inhabits rainforest areas, but also occurs outside of these in savannas , gallery forests and in northern Central America in sparse pine forests. On the other hand, the lowland species Conostegia lasiopoda and Conostegia polyandra also grow in swamp forests .
Due to the relatively low stature heights that the plants reach, most of the Conostegia species are only found in the undergrowth in forests, some species also in the lower tree layer. Some species show a preference for light spots, such as those caused by natural disturbances or human interference or that are permanently present along streams. In particular, Conostegia subcrustulata and some other species have the main focus of their occurrence in habitats that are heavily influenced by human intervention. They occur in secondary forests , on the edges of forests and roadsides, or in open pastureland .
Ant symbiosis
The symbiosis between Conostegia setosa , a species with myrmecodomata, and ants has been studied at two locations in Costa Rica and Panama . The investigated Conostegia - clones were inhabited by up to eight different species of ants, especially from the genera Pheidole , Solenopsis and Wasmannia . These were predominantly opportunistic species that can nest in the leaf litter or in dead wood . However, at the location investigated in Panama, the most common species was Pheidole melastomae , an ant that apparently lives on various representatives of the black-mouthed family (Melastomataceae) and has never been found apart from them. At the Costa Rican site, where only facultative plant-dwelling ants were found, an average of 65% of the strains of a clone were colonized, at the Panamanian site with Pheidole melastomae the average was 89%. Pheidole melastomae was also the most frequent inhabitant of two other locations examined by the same author in Colombia and Ecuador . Conostegia setosa does not provide food to the ants, but the ants keep scale insects and mealybugs in the domatia . Only some of the ant species protect the host plant from herbivores.
Taxonomy and systematics
The genus Conostegia was in 1823 by the Scottish botanist David Don described . Don did not carry out a nomenclature transfer of the species that had been treated within the genus Melastoma to the newly created genus. This was then made up for in 1828 by Augustin-Pyrame de Candolle in his Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis . A type species has not yet been determined. Cryptophysa Standl. & JFMacbr. and Eustegia Raf. are synonyms .
In his dissertation in 1996, the American botanist Charles E. Schnell separated a separate genus Florbella from Conostegia for two Peruvian species . These species are, on the one hand, Conostegia inusitata (under the name Florbella inusitata ) and, on the other hand, the newly described Florbella wurdackii . According to ICBN , Art. 29, both the establishment of the new genus and the description of the new species are ineffective in terms of nomenclature , since both only took place in an unpublished dissertation.
The genus Conostegia belongs to the tribe Miconieae , which includes 19-23 genera and approximately 1800 species. A molecular biological investigation on the basis of ITS sequences in 2004 showed that Conostegia, like most of the other genus of the tribe studied, is embedded in the non- monophyletic genus Miconia, which contains more than 1000 species . The seven examined Conostegia species all fell into one clade ("Clade F"), which also contained Leandra subulata and which was the sister group of Miconia pachyphylla . A subsequent study based on ITS sequences and a sequence from the chloroplast genome ( ndh F), which included more species, produced a similar result. Here the 15 examined Conostegia species were all contained in a clade (" Conostegia clade"), which also included some Central American species of the genera Miconia and Clidemia as well as Tococa spadiciflora from Colombia and Ecuador. Leandra subulata was in this case the sister taxon of the entire remaining clade. In both studies, the resolution at the base of the corresponding clades was weak, so that the monophyly of the genus Conostegia can neither be confirmed nor clearly refuted.
etymology
The name Conostegia can be derived from the two ancient Greek words κώνος ( kōnos , dt. Cone ) and στέγη ( stegē , dt. Roof ). The name refers to the special design of the chalice.
species
The genus includes 42 to 45 species. Two of the species listed below, Conostegia inusitata and Conostegia myriasporoides , appear to belong to other genera. But they only have a valid name in Conostegia .
About a dozen of the species originally described under Conostegia are now assigned to other genera, most of them to Miconia .
| Scientific name | distribution | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Conostegia apiculata Wurdack | Colombia, Ecuador | |
| Conostegia arborea ( Schltdl. ) Steud. | Mexico ( Puebla , Veracruz ) | |
| Conostegia attenuata Triana | Costa Rica to Ecuador, Peru (?) | |
| Conostegia balbisiana Ser. ex DC. | Jamaica | |
| Conostegia bigibbosa Cogn. | Costa Rica | |
| Conostegia bracteata Triana | Nicaragua to Colombia | |
| Conostegia brenesii Standl. | Costa Rica | |
| Conostegia caelestis Standl. | Mexico to Honduras | |
| Conostegia centronioides Markgr. | Ecuador | 2 varieties |
| Conostegia chiriquensis Gleason | Costa Rica, Panama | |
| Conostegia cinnamomea ( Beurl. ) Wurdack | Nicaragua to Colombia, Venezuela | |
| Conostegia cuatrecasii Gleason | Panama to Ecuador, Venezuela | |
| Conostegia dentata Triana | Panama to Ecuador | |
| Conostegia extinctoria ( Bonpl. ) D.Don ex DC. | Costa Rica to Peru, Venezuela | |
| Conostegia hirtella Cogn. | Guatemala to Nicaragua | |
| Conostegia icosandra ( Sw. ) Urb. | South Mexico to Venezuela, Antilles , East Brazil (Bahia) | |
| Conostegia inusitata Wurdack | Peru | to Florbella , nom. inval. |
| Conostegia jaliscana Standl. | Mexico ( Jalisco ) | |
| Conostegia lasiopoda Benth. | Nicaragua to Ecuador, Coconut Island | |
| Conostegia lindenii Cogn. | Cuba , Hispaniola | |
| Conostegia macrantha O Berg ex Triana | El Salvador , Costa Rica, Panama | |
| Conostegia micrantha Standl. | Nicaragua to Panama, Ecuador | |
| Conostegia montana (Sw.) D. Don ex DC. | South Mexico to Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana (?), Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Lesser Antilles | |
| Conostegia monteleagreana Cogn. | Costa Rica to Colombia | |
| Conostegia muriculata Almeda | Costa Rica, Panama | |
| Conostegia myriasporoides Triana | Colombia | rather belongs to Allomaieta |
| Conostegia oerstediana O. Berg ex Triana | Nicaragua to Panama | |
| Conostegia pittieri cogn. | Nicaragua to West Panama | |
| Conostegia plumosa L.O.Williams | South Mexico to Honduras | |
| Conostegia polyandra Benth. | Nicaragua, Panama to Peru | |
| Conostegia procera (Sw.) D. Don ex DC. | Jamaica | |
| Conostegia pyxidata Proctor | Jamaica | |
| Conostegia rhodopetala Donn.Sm. | Costa Rica | |
| Conostegia rubiginosa Gleason | Colombia | |
| Conostegia rufescens Naudin | Nicaragua to Ecuador, Jamaica, Hispaniola | |
| Conostegia setifera Standl. | Southeast Nicaragua to West Panama | |
| Conostegia setosa Triana | Nicaragua to Ecuador, Venezuela | |
| Conostegia speciosa Naudin | Nicaragua to Ecuador, Venezuela | |
| Conostegia subcrustulata (Beurl.) Triana | El Salvador, Honduras to Ecuador, Venezuela | |
| Conostegia superba D. Don ex Naudin | South Mexico to Peru, Venezuela, North Brazil (?), Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola | |
| Conostegia tenuifolia Donn.Sm. | Nicaragua to Ecuador | |
| Conostegia volcanalis Standl. & Steyerm. | Mexico to Panama | |
| Conostegia vulcanicola Donn.Sm. | Costa Rica, Western Panama | |
| Conostegia xalapensis (Bonpl.) D. Don ex DC. | Mexico to Colombia, Cuba |
gallery
use
Conostegia xalapensis wood is sometimes used as firewood , for fences, and for bean poles .
The ripe, dark purple berries of Conostegia xalapensis are sweet and tasty. They are reminiscent of North American species of Gaylussacia or Vaccinium in appearance and taste . They are particularly popular with children and farm workers and are sometimes offered at markets.
Conostegia xalapensis is used in folk medicine in Mexico for various purposes, such as the treatment of chilblains , diarrhea or childbirth problems . There are also historical reports that the plant was used against scabies or that water, in which shredded leaves were soaked for a period, helped with sore eyes or against corneal scars. In the absence of chemical and pharmacological studies, the effectiveness of these applications has not been proven.
annotation
- ↑ In his unpublished dissertation The genus Conostegia (Melastomataceae) from 1996 Charles E. Schnell has Conostegia centronioides var. Lancifolia Markgr. treated as an independent species Conostegia lancifolia - cf. [1] . According to ICBN , Art. 29, this has no nomenclature effect.
swell
- F. Almeda: 180. Melastomataceae. In: G. Davidse, M. Sousa Sánchez, S. Knapp, F. Chiang (Eds.): Flora Mesoamericana. Vol. 4 (1): Cucurbitaceae a Polemoniaceae. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, The Natural History Museum, London 2009, ISBN 978-6-07-020901-7 . on-line
- J. Fournet: 6. Conostegia D. Don. In: Flore illustrée des phanérogames de Guadeloupe et de Martinique. Tome 1, Nouv. éd. CIRAD, Center de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, Montpellier 2002, ISBN 2-908490-26-9 , pp. 844-846.
- R. Kriebel, G. Umaña: Conostegia. In: BE Hammel, MH Grayum, C. Herrera, N. Zamora (eds.): Manual de plantas de Costa Rica. Vol. VI: Dicotiledóneas (Haloragaceae – Phytolaccaceae). Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis 2007, ISBN 978-1-930723-60-3 , pp. 441-455.
- PC Standley, LO Williams: Melastomaceae. Melastome Family. In: Flora of Guatemala - Part VII, Number 4. Fieldiana, Bot. 24 (7/4), 1963, pp. 407-525. (on-line)
- JJ Wurdack: 38. Conostegia D. Don, Mem. Wern. Soc. 4: 316. 1823. In: T. Lasser (Ed.): Flora de Venezuela. Vol. VIII: Melastomataceae. 1973, pp. 523-527.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b P. C. Standley, LO Williams 1963 , p. 441. (online)
- ^ A b P. C. Standley, SJ Record: Conostegia Don. In: The forests and flora of British Honduras. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 12, 1936, p. 290. (online)
- ^ Conostegia . In: P. Goldblatt, DE Johnson (Ed.): Tropicos.org: Index to Plant Chromosome Numbers (IPCN) . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis ( tropicos.org [accessed May 26, 2012]).
- ^ ML Solt, JJ Wurdack: Chromosome numbers in the Melastomataceae. In: Phytologia. 47, 1980, pp. 199-220. (on-line)
- ↑ a b c R. Kriebel, G. Umaña 2007 .
- ↑ a b L. E. Alonso: Spatial and temporal variation in the ant occupants of a facultative ant-plant. In: Biotropica. 30, 1998, pp. 201-213. doi: 10.1111 / j.1744-7429.1998.tb00055.x
- ^ LE Tennant-De Alonso: Geographic variation and ecological determinants of the ant occupants of Conostegia setosa (Melastomataceae). In: Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. 77, Suppl. 3 (2), 1996, p. 439. Abstract
- ↑ D. Don: An illustration of the natural family of plants called Melastomaceae. In: Mem. Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. 4, 1823, pp. 276-329. not seen.
- ^ JJ Wurdack: 19. Conostegia D. Don. In: 138. Melastomataceae. In: G. Harling, B. Sparre (eds.): Flora of Ecuador. No. 13. University of Göteborg, Riksmuseum, Stockholm 1980, ISBN 91-546-0281-5 , pp. 100-110.
- ^ AP de Candolle: LVI. Conostegia. In: Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis. Part 3, Treuttel & Würtz, Paris 1828, pp. 173–176. (on-line)
- ^ Conostegia. In: Index Nominum Genericorum database. Smithsonian Institution, accessed May 26, 2012 .
- ^ Conostegia. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), ARS, National Genetic Resources Program, National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, accessed May 26, 2012 .
- ↑ a b c C. E. Schnell: The genus Conostegia (Melastomataceae). Diss. Ph.D, Harvard Univ., Boston (MA), USA 1996. Abstract
- ↑ Florbella inusitata. In: TROPICOS. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed May 26, 2012 .
- ↑ Florbella wurdackii. In: TROPICOS. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed May 26, 2012 .
- ^ A b F. A. Michelangeli, WS Judd, DS Penneys, JD Skean, ER Bécquer-Granados, R. Goldenberg, CV Martin: Multiple events of dispersal and radiation of the tribe Miconieae (Melastomataceae) in the Caribbean. In: Bot. Rev. 74, 2008, pp. 53-77. doi: 10.1007 / s12229-008-9004-x
- ↑ FA Michelangeli, DS Penneys, J. Giza, D. Soltis, MH Hils, JD Skean: A preliminary phylogeny of the tribe Miconieae (Melastomataceae) based on nrITS sequence data and its implications on inflorescence position. In: Taxon. 53, 2004, pp. 279-290. Abstract
- ↑ MEL names. In: Melastomataceae.Net 2007-2010. A Site with Information on the Biodiversity of Melastomataceae. Retrieved May 26, 2012 .
- ^ Conostegia. In: TROPICOS. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed May 26, 2012 .
- ↑ J. Fournet 2002 , p. 846.
- ↑ MEL names: Conostegia myriasporoides. In: Melastomataceae.Net 2007-2010. A Site with Information on the Biodiversity of Melastomataceae. Retrieved May 26, 2012 .
- ^ F. Almeda: Melastomataceae. In: Flora del Bajío y de regiones adyacentes. Fasc. 10. Instituto de Ecología, AC, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán 1993. (PDF)
- ↑ a b Conostegia xalapensis. In: Biblioteca Digital de la Medicina Tradicional Mexicana. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, accessed May 26, 2012 .
