Large-flowered Thunbergia

Large-flowered Thunbergia
Thunbergia grandiflora
Systematics
Euasterids I Order : Mint family (Lamiales) Family : Acanthus family (Acanthaceae) Subfamily : Thunbergioideae Genre : Thunbergia ( Thunbergia ) Type : Large-flowered Thunbergia
Scientific name
Thunbergia grandiflora
Roxb.

The Large-flowered Thunbergia ( Thunbergia grandiflora ) is a plant from the family of the Acanthaceae (Acanthaceae). Originally from the Indian subcontinent , it is often used as an ornamental plant and is an invasive plant in some areas .

description

Simple foliage leaf

illustration

The two bracts envelop the flower bud

Zygomorphic flower

Appearance and leaf

Thunbergia grandiflora is a climbing , perennial herbaceous plant . In young plants, the four-edged stem axis is hairy and the base can become lignified and grow to lengths of 20 meters or more. The root system spreads out with deep, thick to bulbous tap roots

The opposite arranged leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is 2 to 6 inches long. The simple, rough and parchment-like leaf blade is egg, spear-shaped to triangular with a length of 6 to 20 centimeters and a width of 3 to 14 centimeters with a blunt to heart-shaped blade base and a pointed upper end. Below the middle of the blade, the leaf margin is sometimes smooth, often roughly lobed or toothed.

Inflorescence and flower

The flowers are on stumpy, 1 to 8 centimeters long peduncles , in lateral or terminal racemose inflorescences . Their two egg-shaped to elongated bracts , each up to 3.5 centimeters long, are partially fused and usually pointed or sometimes blunt; they are densely hairy and rough.

The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The trimmed calyx is densely hairy. The bell-shaped, bald corolla , measuring up to 8 centimeters, is purple, sometimes it is also bluish with a white or yellow center; only in exceptional cases is the crown white. The anthers are spurred.

Fruit and seeds

The leathery, two-fold capsule fruit is spherical with a diameter of about 1.5 centimeters, ends at its tip in a 2 to 5 centimeter long beak and has normal hair and short glandular hairs. The up to 1 centimeter long seeds are covered on one side with brown scales.

Chromosome number

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 56.

The large-flowered Thunbergia as an invasive plant in Hawaii

Spread and common names

Thunbergia grandiflora is native to the Indian subcontinent from northeast India to Bangladesh and in Bhutan , Nepal and Myanmar . Thunbergia grandiflora is cultivated as an ornamental plant in all tropical regions of the world and easily overgrows. In Australia it is called Blue Trumpet Vine . In Puerto Rico there are the common names Fausto and Pompeya .

literature

• Henri Alain Liogier alias Hermano Alain: Descriptive Flora of Puerto Rico and Adjacent Islands: Spermatophyta. Volume V: Acanthaceae to Compositae. Editorial UPR, 1997, ISBN 0-8477-2338-0 , p. 58.
• WT Parsons, EG Cuthbertson: Noxious Weeds of Australia. CSIRO Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-643-06514-8 , p. 152.
• LH Durkee: Family # 200: Acanthaceae . In: William Burger (Ed.): Flora Costaricensis . Fieldiana: Botany. new series, number 18, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA 1986, p. 86.
• Weed Identification by the Australian Weeds Committee. (Sections Description and Distribution)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thunbergia grandiflora at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis

Web links

Commons : Large-flowered Thunbergia ( Thunbergia grandiflora )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files