Quiver flowers
| Quiver flowers | ||||||||||||
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Cigarette flowers ( Cuphea ignea ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cuphea | ||||||||||||
| P. Brownne |
Cuphea ( Cuphea ) are the most diverse genus of the family of Lythraceae (Lythraceae). The 250 to 260 species thrive mainly in the tropical and subtropical latitudes of South and Central America, north to Mexico, with five species in the warm-temperate North America.
Description and ecology
Vegetative characteristics
In Cuphea TYPES is one year to perennial herbaceous plants , rare woody subshrubs . Most species reach heights of up to 1.5 meters and are perennial herbs, often facultative annuals that bloom and bear fruit in the first year, but can live for several years under favorable conditions. 41 species of true annuals are known, most of them from the heterodon section . The few larger species that reach heights of up to four meters are climbers living in South America . They usually have a taproot , rarely a massive, woody rhizome. The leaves are opposite or, rarely, in whorls of three. They have entire margins and are usually thin, in a few species they are rolled up like leather or heather like needles. They are usually covered on both sides by small, pressed hairs and become smaller towards the tip of the shoot, more rarely they are abruptly reduced in size from the base of the inflorescence. Like the flowers, the shoot is often covered by multicellular, glandular trichomes.
Generative characteristics
The inflorescence usually occupies the upper third, up to half of the shoot. In most species it is grape and hardly set off from the vegetative section. Some species have clearly differentiated, terminal racemose or paniculate inflorescences. The branching pattern is characteristic of the genus: At each node a vegetative bud is formed in one leaf axil, and a flower bud in the other. The flower stalk is fused with the internode of the shoot axis, so that the flower appears to be attached to the next higher node. The opposite bud can develop on a short side branch with additional flowers. The length of the inflorescence axis is not specified.
The flowers are zygomorphic , an exception within the family. They are sixfold. Each flower consists of a long flower tube, an elongated flower cup , which is usually slightly ribbed on the outside. In most species it is intensely red in color, but it can also be colored differently, for example green. The tube can be simple, but in most species it is asymmetrically sagging on one side and thus forms a spur that often continues the tube in a straight line, so that the flower stalk is shifted to the side, the flowers then stand at right angles from the axis. The sepals form a border that closes the tube. Between the six sepals there is an appendage, which is formed from the fused edges of neighboring sepals. In many species the two upper (adachsial) sepals are larger and darker in color than the others. The petals are of variable shape and color, mostly they are colored red, often two or four of them are larger than the others, but they can also be the same size. Their number is usually 6, in some species there are only 4 or 2. They are often shed early, a few days after opening. At its base there is often a conspicuous, white or yellow-colored swelling that marks the throat of the flower tube. The eleven stamens (a morphologically accessible twelfth has been lost) branch off from the inner wall of the flower tube, usually after about two thirds of their length. In some species, the number of stamens is reduced from 11 to 9, 7 or 5. The ovary is above and double, with one subject always more or less reduced.
The fruit is a thin-walled, dry-skinned capsule . It remains enclosed in the perennial flower tube and is not released. Even before the seeds ripen, the capsule wall and the flower tube tear open laterally, the placenta with the still green ovules is free and curves outward through this gap. The mature seeds are then released directly. This particular way of seed release occurs only in the genus Cuphea . Usually between 6 and 20 (minimum 2, maximum more than 100) seeds are formed per flower, the thousand-grain mass is between 0.18 and 4.45 grams.
The flowers are rich in nectar, they are partially pollinated by hummingbirds .
Distribution and location
The genus Cuphea is restricted to the New World. The most species-rich is the south-east of Brazil with more than 50 species, in the Cerrado the highlands of Bahia, Minas Gerais and Goias. Some species are found in the Amazon, but the number of species in the tropical rainforest is not very high. Here, too, the genus prefers open areas, such as rocks or the sandy banks of flowing waters or, as local endemics , the mountain peaks of isolated witness mountains. Another center of diversity forms with more than 30 species of western Mexico, where species of the genus occurs in deciduous forests, from dry forests of the lowlands to oak and pine forests of the highlands, up to heights of about 3000 meters. Dry, arid habitats such as deserts and semi-deserts are avoided, but some species penetrate into disturbed habitats such as roadsides. Only a few species are common to South America and Mexico. The total distribution of the genus extends south to about the middle of Argentina, north to Massachusetts . Only five species are found in the USA.
Systematics
According to the classical view, the genus Cuphea is divided into two subgenera Cuphea s. st. and Bracteolata and divided into 13 sections . Genetic studies have shown the subgenus, but not most of the sections, to be natural units.
There are 250 to 260 types of Cuphea (selection):
- Cuphea acicularis Koehne : It occurs only in the Brazilian state of Goiás .
- Cuphea acinifolia A.St.-Hil. : It occurs in the Brazilian states of Paraná , Santa Catarina and São Paulo .
- Cuphea aequipetala Cav. : It occurs from Mexico via Guatemala to Honduras .
- Cuphea angustifolia Jacq. ex Koehne : It occurs in southern Mexico.
- Cuphea antisyphilitica Kunth : It occurs in Colombia , Bolivia , Venezuela , Guyana and Brazil.
- Cuphea aperta Koehne : It occurs in Brazil.
- Cuphea aspera Chapm. : This endemic occurs only in Florida .
- Cuphea avigera B.L.Rob. & Seaton : It occurs in Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua .
- Cuphea axilliflora Koehne : It occurs in Guatemala.
- Cuphea brachiata Mart. ex Koehne : It occurs in Brazil.
- Cuphea bustamanta Lex .: It occurs in Mexico.
- Cuphea caeciliae Koehne : It occurs in the Mexican state of Chiapas .
- Cuphea caesariata S.A. Graham : It occurs in the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Nayarit.
- Cuphea calaminthifolia Schltdl. : It occurs in Mexico.
- Cuphea calcarata Benth. : It occurs in Mexico.
- Cuphea calophylla Cham. & Schltdl. : It occurs in Mexico, Central America and South America.
- Cuphea carthagenensis (Jacq.) JFMacbr. : It occurs in Mexico, on islands in the Caribbean, in Central and South America and is a neophyte in North America in Australia and on islands in the Pacific.
- Cuphea confertiflora A.St.-Hil. : It occurs in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
- Cuphea crassiflora S.A. Graham : It occurs in southern Mexico.
- Blue quiverflower ( Cuphea cyanea DC. ): It occurs in Mexico and Guatemala.
- Japanese dummy myrtle or hyssop-leaved cochlea ( Cuphea hyssopifolia Kunth ): It is distributed from Mexico to Central and South America.
- Cigarette flowers or cigarette fuchsia ( Cuphea ignea A.DC. ): The home is southern Mexico.
- Cuphea jorullensis Kunth : It occurs in Mexico.
- Lancet-leaved cochleaf or lancet-leaved hermaphrodite ( Cuphea lanceolata Baill. ): Its home is Mexico.
- Cuphea llavea Lex .: The home is Mexico.
- Cigarette plant ( Cuphea melvilla Lindl. ): The home is Ecuador, Venezuela, Guayana, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
- Small-crowned cochlea ( Cuphea micropetala Kunth ): It occurs in southern Mexico.
- Low Lying Cuphea ( Cuphea procumbens Cav. ) His home is southern Mexico.
- Sticky cuttlefish ( Cuphea viscosissima Jacq. ): Found in the northeast to southeast United States.
- Cuphea wrightii A.Gray : It is distributed from Arizona to Mexico to Central America.
The monophyly of the genus was clearly confirmed by morphological and genetic studies, sister group is probably the South American genus Pleurophora .
use
Some species are also cultivated as ornamental plants in Central Europe because of their flowers . In the case of the cigarette quiver flower ( Cuphea ignea ), also called cigarette flower, cigarette fuchsia, match fuchsia, match fuchsia , match plant or cigar flower, which is often used as bedding and balcony plant, the color effect of the orange-red flowers with a white-blackish border comes from the fused sepals , petals are missing.
The seeds of various types of Cuphea are rich in saturated fatty acids of medium length, such as lauric acid and capric acid . The genus is therefore a growing alternative to the coconut palm and the oil palm in temperate regions , the only commercially significant suppliers of these fatty acids of commercial interest, which are used in the cosmetics industry, but also for the production of biodiesel. The cultivation of Cuphea has therefore been intensively researched, especially in the USA. So far, the problem with cultivation is that the seeds, as is typical for wild plants, are scattered when the seeds are ripe and are lost for harvest. A breeding line with improved retention of the seeds on the plant through a special mutation, PSR23, a hybrid between the North American summer annuals Cuphea viscosissima and Cuphea lanceolata , has been intensively tested for agricultural cultivation. When sown in May and harvested in September, the variety achieves yields of up to 1,000 kg per hectare in Minnesota, with an oil content of about a third of the weight of the seed. Commercial agricultural cultivation has not yet been profitable, despite improved cultivation techniques and successful breeding.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Shirley A. Graham: Cuphea, a new plant source of medium-chain fatty acids. In: Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 28 (2), 1989, pp. 139-173.
- ↑ Janet C. Barber, Amanuel Ghebretinsae, Shirley A. Graham: An expanded phylogeny of Cuphea (Lythraceae) and a North American monophyly. In: Plant Systematics and Evolution. 289, 2010, pp. 35-44. doi: 10.1007 / s00606-010-0329-7
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Cuphea in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program . National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
- ↑ WB Phippen: Cuphea. In: Johann Vollmann, Istva Rajcan (Ed.): Oil Crops. (= Handbook of Plant Breeding. Vol. 4). Springer Verlag, Dordrecht et al. 2009, ISBN 978-0-387-77593-7 , Chapter 19.
- ^ Frank Forcella, Russ W. Gesch, Terry A. Isbell: Seed Yield, Oil, and Fatty Acids of Cuphea in the Northwestern Corn Belt. In: Crop Science. 45, 2005, pp. 2195-2202.
