Corynaea crassa
| Corynaea crassa | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Corynaea crassa |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Corynaea | ||||||||||||
| Hook. f. | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Corynaea crassa | ||||||||||||
| Hook. f. |
Corynaea crassa is the only species of the plant genus Corynaea in the family of the Balanophoraceae . It is a root parasite on other plant species and thrives in mountain forests of northern South America.
description
Corynaea crassa is a yellow-brown to dark purple, fleshy root parasite. The underground, elliptical to almost spherical tuber has an irregularly lobed shape with short, cylindrical outgrowths, (rarely from 2.3) mostly 4 to 6 centimeters long, mostly 4 to 8 (2.1 to 10) centimeters wide and starchy. One or more leafless, short or elongated cylindrical stems that carry the inflorescence grow from each tuber . In doing so, they break through the outer tissue of the tuber, so that a ring or sheath-shaped structure is found at the base of each stem.
The apparently unbranched inflorescence is approximately spherical to elliptical or obovate. When young, it is occupied with hexagonal, umbrella-like, stalked bracts that fall off early. Each branch is unisexual or bisexual, in the latter case the flowers are strongly protogynous .
The flowers are embedded in a dense layer of thread-like, 1.8 to 2 millimeters long hairs. The male flowers have an initially tubular, outwardly funnel-shaped, triple-lobed or irregularly notched perianth , which is 3.5 to 5 millimeters long and up to 1 millimeter wide, the tongue-shaped lobes are around 1.8 millimeters long and 0 , 8 millimeters wide. The three stamens are fused, the six compartments of the synandrium are arranged lengthways . The medium-sized, spherical pollen grains are tricolpat and trinucleate. The inconspicuous female flowers are flattened and the ovary grow together, they have two short widened lip-like segments. There are two styluses 1 to 1.2 millimeters long , the scars are head-shaped. The fruits are small achenes and each contain a seed.
Occurrence
Corynaea crassa thrives in mountain forests at altitudes of 1250 to 3600 meters. It occurs from Costa Rica to Bolivia and in northwestern Venezuela .
Systematics
The first description of Corynaea crassa was in 1856 by Joseph Dalton Hooker .
From Corynaea crassa there are two varieties:
- Corynaea crassa Hook. f. var. crassa
- Corynaea crassa var. Sprucei (. Eichl) B.Hansen : With clearly dreigelapptem perianth in male flowers.
proof
- ↑ a b c d e Bertel Hansen: Balanophoraceae. In: Flora Neotropica , Volume 23 - Balanophoraceae , pp. 41-45.
