Kadua elatior
| Kadua elatior | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Kadua elatior | ||||||||||||
| ( H. Mann ) A. Heller |
Kadua elatior is a plant from the genus Kadua in the family of the Rubiaceae (Rubiaceae). It is endemic to Hawaii .
description
Vegetative characteristics
Kadua elatior grows as a branched subshrub with trunks of 0.1 to 0.2 meters in length. The ascending to slightly upright, slightly grooved trunks have an approximately round to square cross-section.
The opposite continuously arranged on the branches leaves are in a petiole and leaf blade divided. The petiole is 0 to 0.6 inches long. The simple, thin and paper-like leaf blade is usually curved sickle-shaped and, with a length of 4 to 18 centimeters and a width of 0.6 to 1.5 centimeters, is linear-elliptical to linear-lanceolate, very rarely also approximately elliptical or approximately lanceolate shaped. The top of the leaf blade is glabrous just like the underside. The base of the spreader is long and pointed, the tip of the spade is also long and tapered and the edge of the spreading, which is flat to slightly back, has the entire margin. One or a few pairs of side veins branch off from each side of the central leaf vein and the higher-order leaf veins form an unclear pattern. The stipules resemble the deciduous leaves, are fused with the base of the petiole and thereby form a leaf sheath . The linear leaf sheath with a broad triangular base is 0.5 to 0.7 inches long and has 0.34 to 0.5 inches long, linearly shaped tip.
Generative characteristics
The terminal, zymous inflorescences are glabrous. The inflorescences contain several single stalked flowers. The flower stalks are 0.4 to 1.5 inches long.
The four-fold flowers are radial symmetry . The top-shaped flower cup is about 0.5 to 1.6 millimeters long. The sepals are fused together to form a calyx tube. With a length of 2.5 to 7 millimeters and a width of 1 to 1.5 millimeters, the calyx lobes are linear to linear-triangular or, more rarely, approximately triangular. The fleshy, white to green, occasionally purple petals are fused together in the shape of a saucer. The corolla tube reaches a length of 0.8 to 1.7 centimeters and has a more or less square cross-section. The four crown lobes reach lengths of 0.3 to 0.4 centimeters. The bilobe stylus is hairy shaggy in the lower part.
The capsule fruits are shaped like a top with a length of 0.3 to 0.6 centimeters and a thickness of 0.4 to 0.5 centimeters. The endocarp is somewhat lignified. Each of the fruits contains several dark brown seeds. They are irregularly shaped like a wedge.
Occurrence
The natural range of Kadua elatior is on some islands belonging to Hawaii . Kadua elatior is endemic to the islands of Kauaʻi , Maui Molokaʻi and Oʻahu .
Taxonomy
The first description as Kadua cookiana var. Eliator was made in 1867 by Horace Mann junior in Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Amos Arthur Heller raised the variety as a Kadua eliator in Minnesota Botanical Studies in 1897 to the rank of a separate species.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Kadua elatior. In: Flora of the Hawaiian Islands. www.botany.si.edu/pacificislandbiodiversity/hawaiianflora, accessed on January 10, 2017 (English).
- ^ Kadua elatior at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed January 10, 2017.