Disc flowering plants

Disc flowering plants
	Panama hat plant ( Carludovica palmata ), habit, inflorescences and palm-like fan leaves.
Systematics
Department :	Vascular plants (tracheophyta)
Subdivision :	Seed plants (Spermatophytina)
Class :	Bedecktsamer (Magnoliopsida)
	Monocots
Order :	Screw tree-like (Pandanales)
Family :	Disc flowering plants
Scientific name
	Cyclanthaceae
	Poit. ex A.Rich.

The disk flower family (Cyclanthaceae) are a plant family in the order of the screw tree-like (Pandanales). Their distribution is neotropical . In Ecuador , where the Panama hat actually comes from, the common name “Toquilla” is used.

description

Illustration of Asplundia utilis

The two-part, frond-shaped leaves of Asplundia insignis

Habit of Dicranopygium microcephalum

The morphological similarities with the Arecaceae and Araceae do not reflect any relationship.

Habit and leaves

They are rarely woody plants: shrubs or lianas or mostly perennial herbaceous plants . They grow upright on their own or they climb; some species are epiphytes . The simple to branched stem axis is very short to long, but slender. Some species form a rhizome .

The leaves are alternate and arranged in a spiral to two rows. The leaves are divided into leaf sheath, leaf stalk (rarely a leaf stalk is missing) and leaf blade. When the leaves are fully developed, the leaf sheaths are open. The herbaceous or leathery leaf blades are simple or mostly divided. If they are divided, then there are palm-like fan leaves (palmat) or in Cyclanthus bipartitus two-part (bifid).

Inflorescences and flowers

They are single sexed ( monoecious ). Very few to very many flowers are in a terminal or lateral, stalked, unbranched inflorescence, here called a spadix, which is usually covered by two to four (rarely up to eleven) spathe (bracts) in the bud. The spathe vary in size, shape and color: green, white, red or yellow. The small flowers are functionally unisexual. In the subfamily Carludovicoideae, the flowers are arranged close together in spirally arranged groups and a female flower is surrounded by four male flowers. In the subfamily of the Cyclanthoideae, the flowers of one sex are usually grouped in whorls.

The unisexual flowers have four or no bracts , which are more or less symmetrical and free or fused. There are 10 to 20 (rarely up to 150) free stamens per male flower . The stamens are more or less fused at their base and mostly swollen. The basifixen anthers have two counters and are tetrasporangiat. The female flowers have four staminodes opposite the bracts; they are awl, worm or thread-shaped, usually 3 to 5 (1 to 10) centimeters long, white to red or yellow, with or without rudimentary anthers. In the female flowers are the four carpels to be up half under constant ovary grown with 50 to 150 (many) ovules . The original four parts of the stylus are completely fused to the top or partially to completely free; but there are always four scars. Pollination takes place by beetles (entomophilia).

Fruits and seeds

The fleshy berries often form a fleshy fruit cluster (synkarp) together with the cob. The seeds can be winged ( stelestylis ). Usually many small to very large seeds are formed per fruit. The seeds of Cyclanthoideae contain starch and those of Carludovicioideae do not contain starch.

Systematics and distribution

Illustration of Evodianthus funifer

Illustration of Sphaeradenia laucheana

The two-part, frond-shaped leaves of Stelestylis surinamensis

The distribution of the family is purely neotropical .

The oldest fossils of fruits and seeds that can be assigned to the disk flower family were described as Cyclanthus messelensis . They were found in layers of the Middle Eocene of the Messel pit near Darmstadt and dated to 47 million years ago.

The family name Cyclanthaceae was first published in 1824 by Pierre Antoine Poiteau in Achille Richard : Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle , 5, 222.

The disk flower family (Cyclanthaceae) is divided into two subfamilies with twelve genera and about 224 species:

Cyclanthoideae: With only one genus:
- Cyclanthus Poit. Ex A. Rich. : With only two species found in tropical America:
  - Disk flower ( Cyclanthus bipartitus Poit. ): It is a perennial herbaceous plant with palm-like, bifid (only two-part) fan leaves. The flowers are greatly reduced (with only a few flower organs). Cases of contact dermatitis of this type are known. Their homeland extends from southern Mexico to northwestern Bolivia and Brazil and to French Guiana and the Lesser Antilles .
  - Cyclanthus indivisus R.E. Schul . : It occurs in Panama and Colombia.
Carludovicioideae: There are herbaceous plants or climbing plants with eleven genera and about 224 species:
- Asplundia Harling : With around 100 species. Their distribution area extends from Mexico to tropical America .:
- Carludovica Ruiz & Pav .: With four types. Their distribution area extends from southern Mexico to tropical South America. They occur as neophytes in the Lesser Antilles.
- Chorigyne R.Erikss. : With seven types. They are native to Costa Rica and Panama.
- Dianthoveus Mutton & Wilder : With the only species:
  - Dianthoveus cremnophilus Mutton & GJWilder : The homeland extends from Colombia to northern Ecuador .
- Dicranopygium Harling : With about 54 kinds. Their distribution area extends from southern Mexico to southern Peru and French Guiana, and also to the Lesser Antilles.
- Evodianthus Oerst. : With the single species and four subspecies:
  - Evodianthus funifer (Poit.) Lindm. : Its distribution area extends from southern Mexico to southern Peru and eastern Brazil, and also to the Lesser Antilles.
- Ludovia Brongn. : With three types. Their distribution area extends from Nicaragua to central Peru and French Guiana.
- Schultesiophytum Harling : With the only species:
  - Schultesiophytum chorianthum Harling : The homeland extends from southern Colombia to Ecuador and into central Peru.
- Sphaeradenia Harling : With about 52 kinds. Their distribution area extends from southern Nicaragua to western Bolivia and northern Brazil.
- Stelestylis Drude : With four types. The homeland ranges from Venezuela to French Guiana and northern Brazil.
- Thoracocarpus Harling : With the only species:
  - Thoracocarpus bissectus (Vell.) Harling : Its range extends from Costa Rica to Bolivia and southeastern Brazil, as well as to the Lesser Antilles and Cuba.

photos

Fruit clusters of Carludovica drudei
Fan leaf from Carludovica rotundifolia
Carludovica rotundifolia , immature fruit cob (spadix), cut open lengthways

swell

The family of Cyclanthaceae in APWebsite. (Section description and systematics)
The Cyclanthaceae family at DELTA. (Section description)
Roger Eriksson: The Cyclanthaceae Family at Neotropical Families of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (Section Description and Distribution)

Individual evidence

↑ Selena Y. Smith, Margaret E. Collinson & Paula J. Rudall: Fossil Cyclanthus (Cyclanthaceae, Pandanales) from the Eocene of Germany and England , in American Journal of Botany , 95, 2008, pp. 688-699: Online.
^ Entry in GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Cyclanthaceae. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved September 24, 2014.

Web links

Commons : Disk Flower Family (Cyclanthaceae) - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

[1] Selena Y. Smith, Margaret E. Collinson & Paula J. Rudall: Fossil Cyclanthus (Cyclanthaceae, Pandanales) from the Eocene of Germany and England , in American Journal of Botany , 95, 2008, pp. 688-699: Online.

[2] Entry in GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network).

[WCSP-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Cyclanthaceae. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved September 24, 2014.