Hexapterella gentianoides
| Hexapterella gentianoides | ||||||||||||
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| Hexapterella gentianoides | ||||||||||||
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Hexapterella gentianoides is a mykoheterotrophic , leaf-green-free plant species of the genus Hexapterella fromthe Burmanniaceae family .
description
Hexapterella gentianoides is an upright and herbaceous species and reaches heights of between 5.5 and 21 centimeters. The cylindrical, 1 centimeter long rhizome is tuber-like and densely covered with thread-like roots and strongly bent back, thread-like and 1 to 2.5 millimeter long scale sheets. It does not perform photosynthesis , but lives parasitically on fungi and is completely dependent on them for its nutrition. The leaves are narrow to obliquely ovate, 0.6 to 5.3 millimeters long and 0.8 to 2 millimeters wide.
Flowering time is July / August. The flower stalks are purple and mostly unbranched, the inflorescences are 5 to 20 millimeters long, forked coils with 2 to 4 flowers each . The bracts are 2.2 to 4.8 millimeters long. The flower stalks are 0.4 to 1 millimeter long, the flowers upright, 7.5 to 14 millimeters long, the flower tube cylindrical to hexagonal. Six wings run from the thickening at the base of the flower tube to the ovary . The tepals are three-lobed, the perianth is circumscissile, so all of the flower elements above the flower tube are thrown off after pollination, but leave behind a bare "flower tube" which is then persistent. The outer tepals are white to purple, the inner - like the throat - yellowish-brown. A very rare characteristic in the family is that the stamens have stamens . These are 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters long.
The capsule fruits are broad to obliquely inverted-egg-shaped, 2.5 to 3.8 millimeters long and 2.3 to 4 millimeters long. The seeds are brown, round to ovate and have a short funiculus .
distribution
Hexapterella gentianoides can be found in northern South America, finds are from Brazil as well as Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname. There it grows in rainforests, rarely wet savannas , from sea level to altitudes of 800 m.
Botanical history
Hexapterella gentianoides was first described by Ignaz Urban in 1903 ; the epithet refers to the similarity of the plant to the gentians . Until 1989 it was the only species in the genus.
proof
- PJM Maas, H. Maas-van de Kamer, J. van Bentham, HCM Snelders, T. Rübsamen: Burmanniaceae . Flora Neotropica, Monogr. Volume 42, 1986, pp. 1-189.