Kadua centranthoides
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Kadua centranthoides |
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| Kadua centranthoides | ||||||||||||
| Hook. & Arn. |
Kadua centranthoides is a plant from the genus Kadua in the family of the Rubiaceae (Rubiaceae). It is endemic to Hawaii .
description
Vegetative characteristics
Kadua centranthoides grows as an upright or creeping dwarf shrub that can reach heights of 0.3 to 2 meters. All shoots are mostly glabrous and blue-green in color, rarely the inflorescences are finely hairy.
The constantly against arranged on the branches leaves are divided into a petiole and leaf blade. The winged petiole is 0 to 1 centimeter long. The simple, leathery leaf blade is 4 to 16.5 centimeters long and 1 to 5.5 centimeters wide, from narrow to broadly ovate to heart-shaped and oblong-ovoid to oblong-lanceolate. The upper side of the leaf blade is glabrous, while the underside is glabrous or finely haired, with the hairiness mostly only occurring along the central nerve of the leaf. The spider base tapers more or less heart-shaped, the sometimes tailed spider tip is short or long pointed and the edge of the spider is entire. Several lateral nerves branch off from each side of the leaf median nerve. The stipules resemble the deciduous leaves, are fused with the base of the petiole and thus form a spiky-tipped leaf sheath . The broad triangular leaf sheath is 0.4 to 1 centimeter long and has a 0.3 to 3 millimeter long spike tip.
Generative characteristics
The terminal, mostly paniculate, rarely loose zymous inflorescences are glabrous or finely hairy. The inflorescences contain several single stalked flowers. The flower stalks are 0.3 to 0.5 inches long.
The four-fold flowers are radial symmetry . The top-shaped to jug-like top-shaped flower cup becomes about 1.5 millimeters long and is bald, more rarely also finely hairy. The bald or finely haired sepals are fused together to form a calyx tube. The calyx lobes are narrowly triangular to elongated with a length of 1.3 to 5 millimeters and have a pointed or blunt tip. The fleshy, bald or densely hairy petals are fused together like a salver. The purple corolla tube reaches a length of 0.9 to 2 centimeters and has a square cross-section. The four green to yellowish green corolla lobes reach lengths of 0.3 to 0.7 centimeters and have an inconspicuous appendage at the tip. The bilobe stylus is usually hairy at the base, frequently it is also quite hairy or bald.
The heavily furrowed capsule fruits are top-shaped to almost spherical with a length of 0.3 to 0.5 centimeters and a thickness of 0.35 to 0.7 centimeters. The endocarp is lignified. Each of the fruits contains several pale brown seeds. They are irregularly wedge-shaped, strongly compressed and have a conspicuous seed wing. The seed coat is wrinkled.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = approx. 100 *.
distribution
The natural range of Kadua centranthoides is on some islands belonging to Hawaii . Kadua centranthoides is an endemic that occurs on the islands of Hawaiʻi , Kauaʻi , Lānaʻi , Maui Molokaʻi and Oʻahu .
Kadua centranthoides thrives at altitudes of 380 to 1920 meters. The species grows there in open areas in moist forests and on the edges of swamps, and occasionally in moderately moist forests.
Taxonomy
The first description as Kadua centranthoides was in 1841 by William Jackson Hooker and George Arnott Walker Arnott in The Botany of Captain Beechey's Voyage . The specific epithet centranthoides refers to the similarity of the species with representatives of the genus Centranthus .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Kadua centranthoides. In: Flora of the Hawaiian Islands. www.botany.si.edu/pacificislandbiodiversity/hawaiianflora, accessed on January 2, 2017 (English).
- ↑ a b Kadua centranthoides. In: Native Plants Hawaii. www.nativeplants.hawaii.edu, accessed January 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Kadua centranthoides at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed January 2, 2017.
