Halothamnus beckettii
| Halothamnus beckettii | ||||||||||||
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Halothamnus beckettii |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the section | ||||||||||||
| Pungentifolia | ||||||||||||
| Kothe-Heinr. | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Halothamnus beckettii | ||||||||||||
| Botsch. |
Halothamnus beckettii is a species of the genus Halothamnus inthe foxtail family ( Amaranthaceae ). It is the only species of the Pungentifolia section that is characterized by woody, spiky leaves. The species is only found in Somalia.
description
Vegetative characteristics
Halothamnus beckettii grows as a heavily branched subshrub and reaches heights of only 20 to 40 centimeters. The whole surface of the plant appears to be covered with small white pustules. The tightly standing, semi-stemmed leaves with a concave upper side are narrowly triangular with a length of 11 mm and run out at the upper end into a cartilaginous spike tip. In the leaf axils there are dense tufts of long curly hairs ( trichomes ).
Generative characteristics
The flowers are of a length of 7.5 to 8.5 mm larger than the other Halothamnus species. The winged fruit has a diameter of 11 to 13 mm, its wings start in the lower fifth of the fruit. The median nerve stands out clearly on the tepal lobes .
Fruit of Halothamnus beckettii , side view
Anatomical features
The leaf anatomy of Halothamnus becketti is unique : the leaves contain an extremely large amount of woody tissue in the area of the vascular bundles at the edge , below the layer of coronary cells .
Occurrence
Halothamnus beckettii is endemic to Somalia and occurs in dry areas with 100–200 mm annual precipitation. The species is rare and so far only known from a few localities. There it grows scattered between dwarf shrubs or grasses, on plateaus and on slopes up to an altitude of 700 meters.
Taxonomy
The first description of Halothamnus beckettii Botsch. was done in 1982 by Viktor Petrovich Botschanzew . The species name refers to the collector of the type specimen, JJ Beckett. The species was accepted in the Flora of Somalia (Volume 1, 1993).
literature
- Gabriele Kothe-Heinrich: Revision of the genus Halothamnus (Chenopodiaceae). Bibliotheca Botanica Vol. 143, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 978-3-510-48014-2 , pp. 46-49 (sections Characteristics, Anatomy, Occurrence, Taxonomy)
Individual evidence
- ^ Viktor Petrovich Botschanzew: Novyj vid roda Halothamnus (Chenopodiaceae) iz Somalia. (Russian) - In: Bot. Žurn. (Moscow) 67 (4), 1982, p. 545 (first description)
- ↑ Entry for Halothamnus beckettii at JSTOR
