Kadua lichtlei
| Kadua lichtlei | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kadua lichtlei |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Kadua lichtlei | ||||||||||||
| Lorence & WLWagner |
Kadua lichtlei is a plant from the genus Kadua in the family of the Rubiaceae (Rubiaceae). It occurs endemically only on one island of the Marquesas Islands in the southern Pacific.
description
Vegetative characteristics
Kadua lichtlei grows as a moderately branched shrub or small tree that can reach heights of up to 4 meters. With the exception of the inflorescences, all shoots are hairless. The branches 0.3 to 0.35 centimeters thick are often prostrate. The dark brown bark is smooth to grooved.
The constantly against arranged on the branches leaves are divided into a petiole and leaf blade. The winged petiole is 0.5 to 2 inches long. The simple, paper-like leaf blade is 3 to 17.5 centimeters long and 1.8 to 11.5 centimeters wide, ovoid, broadly elliptical and broadly obovate-elliptical to approximately circular. The spider base is pointed to blunt, the short, pointed tip of the spreader is blunt or rounded, and the edge of the spread is entire. The glossy, dark green upper side of the leaves is bare just like the light green underside. Six to eleven lateral nerves branch off from each side of the greenish white leaf central nerve. The interpetiolaren, occasionally intrapetiolaren stipules are similar to the foliage leaves, are fused with the base of the petiole and thereby form a sheath having a pointed tip. The broadly triangular leaf sheath is 1.5 to 3 millimeters long and 3 to 7 millimeters wide.
Generative characteristics
In collections in June, the flowers were still in the bud while specimens blooming in December were seen. Fruits were also spotted in June and December, the latter being older fruits.
The terminal, triple branched, zymous panicle or umbrella panicle inflorescences are 6.5 to 14 inches long and 9 to 12 inches wide. The inflorescence stalk is 3 to 4 inches long, if any. The inflorescences contain 80 to 300 perched, more rarely stalked single flowers. The flower stalks are up to 0.4 inches long.
The hermaphroditic flowers are radial symmetry and are fourfold. The wide obovate to inverted conical flower cup is 1 to 1.8 millimeters long and 1.2 to 1.6 millimeters wide. It has a warty surface and is green in color. The sepals are fused together to form a 0.2 to 0.4 millimeter long and bare calyx tube. The four to five hairless calyx lobes are triangular in shape with a size of 0.2 to 0.5 millimeters. The petals are fused together like a saucer. The green and hairless corolla tube reaches a length of 1.8 to 2.2 millimeters and a diameter of 1 to 1.3 millimeters. The four white corolla lobes are 1.5 to 2 millimeters long and 1.3 to 1.6 millimeters wide, triangular to ovoid and have a small, recurved appendage at the tip. The wrinkled surface of the corolla lobes is hairy. The stamens are inserted close to the base of the corolla tube. The four sessile and at the base doubly lobed anthers are elliptical and 0.7 to 1.4 millimeters long. The double-lobed stylus is around 1.5 millimeters long and the stigma is around 0.5 millimeters in size.
The dark brown and bare capsule fruits are 0.4 to 0.5 centimeters long and 0.35 to 0.4 centimeters wide and are obovate to almost spherical. The rounded or conical tip of the capsule fruit is divided into four segments. Each of the fruits contains about 200 brown seeds, which are 0.5 to 0.6 millimeters long and 0.35 to 0.4 millimeters wide. They are oval and elliptical to irregular in shape and the seed coat is covered by an irregular net pattern. The seeds also have a punctiform hilum .
distribution
The natural range of Kadua lichtlei is on the Marquesas Islands in the southern Pacific . Kadua lichtlei is an endemic that only occurs on the island of Ua Huka . As far as is known so far, this comprises several rock faces in the region around Hokatu , which rise above the village of Hane .
Kadua lichtlei thrives at altitudes of around 520 meters. This species grows there in the damp bushland and in the herbaceous vegetation on rock walls made of basalt and rocky terrain. Below the rock walls are damp forests where among others the Hárslevelű Marshmallow ( Hibiscus tiliaceus ) Freycinetia impavida and pandanus tectorius and various types of Alyxia , two teeth ( Biden ) boehmeria ( Boehmeria ) Macropiper , Maytenus , Miscanthus , Morinda , Peperomia ( Peperomia ), Phyllanthus , Xylosma and various vascular spore plants occur.
Taxonomy
The first description of Kadua lichtlei was made in 2011 by David H. Lorence and Warren L. Wagner in phytokeys . The specific epithet lichtlei honors the mayor of the community of Ua Huka , Léon Lichtle, who has done a great job preserving the flora and fauna of the island and has supported researchers.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i David H. Lorence, Warren L. Wagner: Revision of Kadua (Rubiaceae) in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, with description of the new species K. lichtlei . In: PhytoKeys . No. 4 , 2011, ISSN 1314-2003 , p. 125-138 , doi : 10.3897 / phytokeys.4.1601 .
- ↑ Kadua lichtlei at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed November 30, 2016.
