[Taxacom] plant without ID in cultivation: Icacinaceae: Calatola

[Wallnöfer Bruno]

Dear colleagues,

 

I have been asked to post any results to the list-members: 

 

As indicated by John L. Clark (The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) in an off-list message, the mystery shrub looks to him like Calatola in the Icacinaceae.

 

I had already checked Icacinaceae in our herbarium (W) but I missed Calatola because it is not well represented here (see below).

 

I studied the specimen and the literature again: now I'm sure: the cultivated plant belongs with certainty to Icacinaceae sensu lato and most likely to Calatola (or perhaps to a closely related genus in the paleotropics)!

Eight species have been described in Calatola so far. This genus is still in urgent need of a comprehensive revision, as are the Icacinaceae as a whole (a family which is indeed a beautiful "can of worms" which should be reopened by someone)! Very unfortunately, Calatola is represented in our herbarium (W) by only two badly pressed specimens of C. costaricensis in fruit. Thus, there isn't enough material here to compare with.

 

Some features are still irritating me: flowers are said to be 4-merous and pistillodes (ovary rudiments) to be missing in male flowers (Sleumer 1942, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 20b). Our cultivated plant shows, however, (4-) 5 (very rarely also 6) petals and a tiny, slightly stipitate ovary rudiment! In addition male flowers are glabrous inside. The leaves are reported to dry always dark, but those of our cultivated plant are still green when dry!

 

With best wishes from (a snowy) Vienna,

 

BW

-----------------------------------------

Dr. Bruno Wallnöfer

Curator of the Vascular Plant Collections
Naturhistorisches Museum
Botanische Abteilung
Burgring 7
A-1010 Wien (Vienna)
Österreich (Austria)
Tel.: +43-1-52177-556
Fax.: +43-1-52177-229

email: bruno.wallnoefer at nhm-wien.ac.at

homepage: http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/forschung/botanik/mitarbeiterinnen/bruno_wallnoefer

 

 

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Wallnöfer Bruno 
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 23. Jänner 2013 12:30
An: 'taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu'
Betreff: plant without ID in cultivation

 

Dear colleagues,

 

Here in Vienna we have a particular plant without ID in cultivation. Its origin is uncertain (South America? Asia? Sri Lanka?).

Four digital photos can be seen at: http://public.nhm-wien.ac.at/unidentified_plant.zip

 

Description:

shrub ca. 1 m tall, obviously dioecious; without latex, leaves simple, alternate, without stipules;

flowers male, in spikes which are shed after anthesis as a whole; 

calyx synsepalous, small, dish-shaped, with 5 very short teeth, appressed to the corolla; 

corolla sympetalous, with 5, valvate teeth;

stamens 5, antesepalous;

anthers introrse, opening by two longitudinal slits

rudiment of the ovary superior, without any structures inside

 

As the female characters are missing, a technical identification is very difficult.

 

What could it be?

 

With very best wishes from Vienna,

 

BW

-----------------------------------------

Dr. Bruno Wallnöfer

Curator of the Vascular Plant Collections
Naturhistorisches Museum
Botanische Abteilung
Burgring 7
A-1010 Wien (Vienna)
Österreich (Austria)
Tel.: +43-1-52177-556
Fax.: +43-1-52177-229

email: bruno.wallnoefer at nhm-wien.ac.at

homepage: http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/forschung/botanik/mitarbeiterinnen/bruno_wallnoefer

 

 

 


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Information gemaess UGB Par. 14 Abs. 1

Naturhistorisches Museum
1010 Wien, Burgring 7
Firmenbuchnummer: FN 236724z
Firmenbuchgericht: Handelsgericht Wien
UID: ATU 38020609
Rechtsform: Wissenschaftliche Anstalt
oeffentlichen Rechts des Bundes
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