Kadua lucei
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| Kadua lucei | ||||||||||||
| ( Lorence & J.Florence ) Lorence & WLWagner |
Kadua lucei 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 lucei grows as a shrub that can reach heights of 1.5 to 2 meters. Old shoots are hairless. The 0.4 to 0.6 cm thick branches have compressed internodes . The dark brown bark is smooth to grooved to wrinkled.
The constantly against arranged on the branches leaves are divided into a petiole and leaf blade. The strong, purple petiole has a small wing, is 0.2 to 0.4 centimeters long and 0.2 to 0.5 millimeters thick. The simple, more or less paper-like leaf blade is elliptical to obovate-elliptical with a length of 5.3 to 14.5 centimeters and a width of 3.3 to 10 centimeters. The base of the spreader is pointed to blunt or rounded, the tip of the spreader, which is usually short, tapered, blunt or rounded, and the edge, which is slightly bent back, is entire. Eight to ten lateral nerves branch off from each side of the greenish white leaf central nerve, which are clearly visible on both the upper and lower side of the leaf. The interpetiolaren and intrapetiolaren stipules are similar to the foliage leaves, are fused with the base of the petiole and thereby form a sheath with a short, sharp tip come to a head. The semicircular leaf sheath is about 3 millimeters long and 4 to 7 millimeters wide.
Generative characteristics
In the previous collections, only specimens with old inflorescences and fruits have been seen so far.
The terminal, zymous, umbrella-like inflorescences are 8 to 9 inches long and about 6 inches wide. The compressed inflorescence stalk is around 3.5 inches long and 0.25 to 0.3 inches thick. The inflorescences contain about 30 stalked individual flowers, with each of the uppermost inflorescence branches bearing two to three flowers. The strong flower stalks are up to 0.2 to 0.3 centimeters long and 0.5 to 1 millimeter thick.
The hairless flowers are radial symmetry , four-fold and probably dimorphic . The bracts are triangular in shape with a length of about 1 and a width of about 1.5 millimeters. The inverted-cone-shaped flower cup becomes 2 to 3 millimeters long. The sepals are fused together to form a 2 to 3 millimeter long, cup-shaped calyx tube. The four calyx lobes are triangular in shape, with a size of 0.5 to 0.7 millimeters and a width of around 1.5 millimeters. The white, fleshy petals are fused together like a salver. The purple speckled corolla tube reaches a length of 2.2 to 2.6 centimeters and a diameter of 1.7 to 2 millimeters. With a length of 0.8 to 1 centimeter and a width of 1.5 to 2 millimeters, the four bent-back crown lobes are linear to oblong and have a 0.5 to 1 millimeter long, hook-shaped appendage at the tip. The stamens are inserted close to the base of the corolla tube. The anthers are linear and 3 to 3.5 millimeters long and 0.3 to 0.4 millimeters wide. The stylus is around 2 centimeters long and the double-lobed, linear scar is around 2.5 millimeters in size.
The capsule fruits are 0.7 to 0.8 centimeters long and about 0.6 centimeters thick, top-shaped to obovate-top-shaped and are attached to a sturdy, 0.5 to 0.7 cm long stem. Nothing is known about the seeds.
distribution
The natural range of Kadua lucei is on the Marquesas Islands in the southern Pacific . Kadua lucei is an endemic that is only found on the island of Fatu Hiva . As far as is known so far, the occurrence is composed of only a small population , which grows on the mountain ridge between Mont Tekou and Mont Touaouoho .
Kadua lucei thrives at altitudes of 910 to 1000 meters. The species grows there along a sloping mountain ridge in the damp bushland. Various species of Alsophila , Freycinetia and Histiopteris grow in the bushland .
Taxonomy
The first description of Kadua lucei was in 2005 as Hedyotis lucei by David H. Lorence and Jacques Florence in Systematic Botany . In 2011 David H. Lorence and Warren L. Wagner transferred the species as Kadua lucei in PhytoKeys to the genus Kadua . The specific epithet lucei honors the amateur naturalist Jean-Pierre Luce, who discovered the species while researching the mountain regions of Fatu Hivas.
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 lucei at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed December 20, 2016.