Ptilotus

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Ptilotus
Spherical inflorescence of Ptilotus obovatus

Spherical inflorescence of Ptilotus obovatus

Systematics
Eudicotyledons
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Foxtail family (Amaranthaceae)
Subfamily : Amaranthoideae
Genre : Ptilotus
Scientific name
Ptilotus
R.Br.

Ptilotus is a genus of plants in the foxtail family(Amaranthaceae). The approximately 90 species occur only on the Australian mainland, apart from two species. Common names for Ptilotus species are mulla mulla, pussy tails, lamb's tail and little hair.

description

Appearance and leaves

Ptilotus TYPES grow as a rare annual to perennial mostly herbaceous plants , semi-shrubs or shrubs . Often there is a lignified "rhizome". The above-ground parts of the plant are bare to slightly downy or woolly hairy. The leaves, arranged in a basal rosette and / or alternately on the stem, are stalked to sessile.

Ptilotus gaudichaudii in flower

Inflorescences, flowers and diaspores

The mostly terminal, sometimes lateral, sessile or standing on inflorescence shafts are spike-like , spherical, egg-shaped, more or less cylindrical, they are rarely interrupted or compound; the mostly many flowers are close together. The inflorescence axis is hairy woolly. The often bright colors of the inflorescences range from shimmering white to silver and greenish-yellow to mauve, purple or pink. The often durable bracts and two bracts per flower are mostly egg-shaped with a sharp tip, dry-skinned, glabrous or hairy differently.

The hermaphrodite flowers are fivefold. The five different outside hairy feathery or woolly, more or less linealischen, stiff bracts are free or only briefly united at their base. There is only the outer circle with five stamens , of which one to three are often reduced to staminodes . The stamens are usually slightly shorter than the bracts and mostly fused together at their base to form a membranous, hard cup, occasionally with small teeth that alternate with the stamens. The seated or shortly stalked ovary contains a hanging ovule .

The seeds (small nuts ) that remain enveloped by the bloom cladding serve as the dispersion unit ( diaspores ); this unit of expansion is called the utriculus. The bloom cladding leaves bald until the fruit is ripe.

Occurrence

Almost all of the over 90 species originally thrive in arid to semi-arid (drier) areas of the mainland of subtropical to tropical Australia . Only one species ( Ptilotus spathulatus ) occurs in Tasmania and another species ( Ptilotus conicus ) can also be found in southern Malesia on the Lesser Sunda Islands ( Flores , Roti, Timor , Wetar) and the southern Moluccas (Tanimbar, Key). For example, there are around 80 species in Western Australia and around 22 species in New South Wales .

Systematics

The genus Ptilotus was first published in 1810 by Robert Brown in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae , p. 415. The epithet ptilotos means leathery or winged and refers to the hairy flowers. Synonyms for Ptilotus R.Br. are Dipteranthemum F.Muell. , Trichinium R.Br. , Hemisteirus F.Muell.

Ptilotus drummondii
Spiky inflorescence of Ptilotus exaltatus
Ptilotus helipteroides
Habit of Ptilotus macrocephalus
Habit of Ptilotus manglesii
Inflorescences of the cultivar Ptilotus nobilis 'Passion'
Ptilotus polystachyus
Ptilotus sessilifolius

There are around 90 species of Ptilotus :

Inflorescence of the cultivar Pilotus 'Platinum Wallaby'.

use

Some varieties of Ptilotus , sometimes referred to as scoops, are used as ornamental plants .

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Ptilotus . In: Electronic Flora of South Australia Fact Sheet. State Herbarium of South Australia, accessed November 26, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i S. WL Jacobs & L. Lapinpuro: Ptilotus . In: PlantNET - New South Wales Flora Online. Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, accessed November 26, 2012 .
  3. ↑ a b Entry in Western Australia Flora , Leslie Watson 2008.
  4. ↑ a b C.GGJ van Steenis (general editor): Flora Malesiana , Series I, Spermatophyta, Volume 4, 1949, CA Backer Amaranthaceae: Ptilotus on S. 89th
  5. ↑ a b c [1] and entry in Australian Plant Name Index = APNI .
  6. ^ Ptilotus in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
  7. ↑ Gordon Cheers (Ed.): Botanica. The ABC of plants. 10,000 species in text and images . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, 2003, ISBN 3-8331-1600-5 (therein page 721).

Web links

Commons : Ptilotus  - collection of images, videos and audio files