Miersiella umbellata
| Miersiella umbellata | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Miersiella | ||||||||||||
| Urb. | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Miersiella umbellata | ||||||||||||
| ( Miers ) Urb. |
Miersiella umbellata is a mykoheterotrophic , leaf-greenless plant species and the only species of its genus fromthe Burmanniaceae family .
description
Miersiella umbellata is an upright and herbaceous species and reaches heights of between 5 and 19 centimeters. The cylindrical rhizome is bulbous and densely covered with roots and narrow to broadly ovoid scale leaves. It no longer carries out photosynthesis , but lives parasitically on fungi and is completely dependent on them for its nutrition.
With a length of 1.4 to 5 millimeters and a width of 0.6 to 1.5 millimeters, the leaves are approximately shield-shaped to ovoid. The inflorescence shafts are white to purple and unbranched. The terminal, golden inflorescences contain 4 to 10, rarely up to 22 flowers; at the base of the inflorescence there are two to four bracts . The upright, stalked flowers are tubular, 2.5 to 4.5 millimeters long and purple to white. The capsule fruits are broad-elliptical to round with a diameter of about 2 millimeters.
distribution
Miersiella umbellata is found in tropical South America in the east and southeast of Brazil and in the Amazon regions of Colombia, Peru and Guyana. There it grows in dense forests from sea level to altitudes of 950, occasionally up to 1700 meters.
Systematics
The first description was under the name ( Basionym ) Dictyostega umbellata by John Miers . The genus Miersiella was created in 1903 by Ignatz Urban with the new combination of the species Miersiella umbellata (Miers) Urb. in Symbolae Antillanae seu Fundamenta Florae Indiae Occidentalis , Volume 3, 3, p. 439, Figures 14-17.
The genus name Miersiella honors the botanist John Miers , who first described this species in 1840.
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.