Mairia

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Mairia
Mairia crenata vBerkel 1.jpg
Mairia crenata, photo: Nicola van Berkel
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Asteroideae
Tribe: Astereae
Subtribe: Mairiinae
G.L.Nesom
Genus: Mairia
Nees
Species
Synonyms [1]
  • AlairiaKuntze

Mairia is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants assigned to the family Asteraceae. All species have leathery, entire or toothed leaves in rosettes, directly from the underground rootstock, and one or few flower heads sit at the top of the stems that carry few bracts. These have a whorl of white to mauve ray florets surrounding yellow disc florets in the centre. In general, flowering only occurs after the vegetation has burned down. The six species currently assigned to Mairia are endemic to the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. [2] Some of the species are called fire daisy in English and vuuraster in Afrikaans. [3]

Contents

Description

Mairia consists of species which store their reserves in their succulent brown underground roots (so-called geophytes). They have evergreen, broad to narrow, oval, elliptic or line-shaped, leathery, often more or less succulent leaves, narrowed at their base in to a leaf stalk that may be broadly winged, with an entire margin, slightly lobed, with few teeth or with regular rounded or pointy teeth. The leaves have one to five main veins, and the surface is very to lightly woolly or hairless, and may or may not carry glands. All leaves grow in a rosette directly from the woody rootstock in the ground. [2]

From the rootstock also develop one or few initially woolly hairy, mostly dark reddish inflorescence stems (or scapes) with one to eight small bracts. These are mostly unbranched but may have up to eight branches in the upper half. Each of these are topped by one or few flower heads, with an involucre of bracts surrounding a flat to slightly concave common base, with clear pits where the ovary attach and without bracts at the foot of the individual florets. The involucre is bell- or cup-shaped or somewhat narrower at the rim. It consists of three, four or up to six whorls of bracts that are overlapping and mostly increase in size further in. [2]

On the edge of the common base grows one whorl of white to mauve-coloured florets. Their corollas consist of a short tube at the base topped by a long, flat, ribbon-like ligule with four or sometimes up to seven veins. In the center of the tube is a forked style that has its receptive areas along the margin which do not meet at the tip, where there is a triangular appendage. The shaft of the style is mostly surrounded by five infertile stamens but these may be absent. Many yellow, funnel-shaped, star-symmetrical disc florets occupy the center of the flower head, often carry soft glands and carry five triangular lobes with a resin duct along the edge. The disc florets contain both ovaries topped by a forked style and five fertile anthers that form a tube around the style shaft. These anthers have triangular appendages at their tip, a blunt basis with or with a very short tail-like appendage. [2]

The pale to dark brown, one-seeded, dry, indehiscent fruits (or cypselae) of both ray and disc florets are cylinder-shaped or somewhat flattened, carry apparently two, or four to seven narrow, mostly contrasting ribs, and are covered by shiny, yellow glands and deeply divided, silvery or golden twin hairs on a further unadorned surface. They carry at their tip the modified calyx called pappus that is yellowish white, persistent, and arranged in two whorls. The outer whorl consists of free, up to 3 mm (0.012 in) long, barbed or feathery bristles and an inner whorl of feathery bristles of up to 9 mm (0.36 in) long, that are merged into a ring at the base. [2]

It has eighteen homologous sets of chromosomes (2n= 36). [2]

Taxonomy

The earliest known description of a species of fire daisy was by Carl Peter Thunberg, a Swedish naturalist who is sometimes referred to as "the father of South African botany". He named it Arnica crenata (now Mairia crenata). In 1833, Nees von Esenbeck erected a new genus Mairia, and took M. crenata as its type species. The genus was accepted by many later authors such as Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1836. William Henry Harvey in 1865 wrongly spelled the name as Mairea and extended the number of species to ten. The genus was also recognised by George Bentham in 1873, Hoffmann in 1889, and Edwin Percy Phillips in 1959. Robert Allen Dyer also spelled the name wrongly as Mairea in 1975. Kåre Bremer in 1994 included fourteen species and thought that Mairia should be included in his Amellus group (subtribe Asterinae). Guy L. Nesom and Harold E. Robinson in 2007 placed it in the primarily South-American subtribe Hinterhuberinae of the tribe Astereae. Close examination of the species assigned to Mairia at that time, led Jürke Grau in 1971, and Nesom in 1994 to reassign the many species without leaf rosettes. This left Mairia with only three species with leaf rosettes: M. crenata, M. coriacea and M. hirsuta. They considered the species they reassigned to Gymnostephium and Zyrphelis as more related to Amellus , Chrysocoma , Felicia and Polyarrhena , than to the species they retained in Mairia. This reassignment was confirmed by a comparison of homologous genes in 2009. Later two newly distinguished taxa were included in the genus, and one species, M. burchellii that was originally described by De Candolle, but had been reassigned to Zyrphelis by Harvey, was reinstated in Mairia by Ulrike Zinnecker-Wiegand in 1990. In 2011, Zinnecker-Wiegand, distinguished M. petiolata as well as M. hirsuta subsp. robusta. The latter was raised to species level by John Manning and Peter Goldblatt in 2012, so creating M. robusta. [2] [4] In 2016, Manning considered Cineraria purpurata synonymous to Mairia hirsuta, and consequently proposed the combination Mairia purpurata. [5] [6]

The genus was named in honour of Louis Maire, half of the South African collecting team of Mund and Maire. [7]

Phylogeny

Comparison of homologous DNA has increased the insight in the phylogenetic relationships between the Astereae. It shows that Mairia likely diverges early in the history of this tribe. Since only one species of Mairia was included in this study, further research may change insights. The genus Zyrphelis to which the majority of species formerly included in Mairia have been reassigned, is much more related to Felicia and Chrysocoma than to the species that have been retained in Mairia. The following relationship tree represents current insights. [8]

supertribe  Asterodae

Reassigned species

The species that were originally described as, or moved to Mairia, which since have been reassigned include the following: [9]

Distribution and ecology

Mairia coriacea, flowering in a burnt veld Mairia coriacea Rebelo 2.jpg
Mairia coriacea, flowering in a burnt veld

The six species of fire daisy are endemic to the southern mountains of the Western Cape province and the western end of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. M. burchellii occurs from Piketberg and Ceres in the north, to the southern Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the south, and eastwards to Bredasdorp. M. coriacea may be found between the southern part of the Cape Peninsula in the west, and the Hottentots Holland Mountains, following the coast past Cape Agulhas to the mouth of the Breede River at Witsand in the east. M. crenata has the largest distribution of any species of Mairia. It has an isolated population on Table Mountain. From Du Toitskloof Pass and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the west, it can be found along the length of the Riviersonderend Mountains, the Langeberg, the Outeniqua Mountains and Tsitsikamma Mountains all the way to the Kouga Mountains on the eastern end. M. hirsuta has a rather limited distribution from near Swellendam to Suurbraak in the Langeberg, and in the isolated range of Warmwaterberg in the Little Karoo to the north. Only a single population of M. petiolata is known, just north of Swellendam in the Langeberg. M. robusta grows from Bainskloof in the north, along Stellenbosch Mountain and Hottentots Holland Mountains to the southern coast near the Kogelberg. [2]

Mairia only flowers after a fire has burnt the overhead vegetation. [3]

Conservation

The continued survival of four species is considered of least concern: M. burchellii, M. coriacea, M. crenata and M. robusta, M. hirsuta is rare, and M. petiolata is critically rare. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Gerbera</i> Genus of plants

Gerbera L. is a genus of plants in the Asteraceae (Compositae) family. The first scientific description of a Gerbera was made by J. D. Hooker in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1889 when he described Gerbera jamesonii, a South African species also known as Transvaal daisy or Barberton daisy. Gerbera is also commonly known as the African daisy.

<i>Pteronia</i> Genus of plants

Pteronia is a genus of evergreen, woody perennial plants assigned to the family Asteraceae with currently 76 described species. Like in almost all Asteraceae, the individual flowers are 5-merous, small and clustered in typical heads, surrounded by an involucre of bracts. In Pteronia, the centre of the head is taken by relatively few, yellow, disc florets, while a ring of ligulate florets is absent. These florets sit on a common base.

<i>Felicia aethiopica</i> A shrublet in the daisy family from South Africa

Felicia aethiopica is a low shrublet of up to about 50 cm high that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has rigid, leathery, inverted egg-shaped leaves, with only the lowest pair set oppositely. It has flower heads with an involucre of about 8 mm in diameter with bracts that each contain three resin ducts, and have one whorl of twelve to fourteen ray florets with about 11 mm long and 1½ mm wide blue straps surrounding many yellow disc florets. The plant is called wild aster or dwarf Felicia in English, and wilde-aster or bloublombossie in Afrikaans. Flowering occurs year-round. Wild aster can be found in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.

<i>Polyarrhena</i> Genus of plants

Polyarrhena is a genus of low, branching shrublets that is assigned to the daisy family. Its stems are alternately and densely set with entire or somewhat toothed leaves. Like in almost all Asteraceae, the individual flowers are 5-merous, small and clustered in typical heads, and which are surrounded by an involucre of in this case three whorls of bracts. In Polyarrhena, the centre of the head is taken by yellow disc florets, and is surrounded by one single whorl of white ligulate florets that have a pinkish-purple wash on the underside. These florets sit on a common base and are not individually subtended by a bract. The species occur in the Cape Floristic Region. Polyarrhena reflexa has long been cultivated as an ornamental and is often known under its synonym Aster reflexum.

Cavea is a low perennial herbaceous plant that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Cavea tanguensis is currently the only species assigned to this genus. It has a basal rosette of entire, slightly leathery leaves, and stems of 5–25 cm high, topped by bowl-shaped flower heads with many slender florets with long pappus and purplish corollas. The vernacular name in Chinese is 葶菊. It grows high in the mountains of China (Sichuan), Tibet, India (Sikkim), and Bhutan, and flowers in July and August.

<i>Corymbium</i> Genus of perennial plants from South Africa

Corymbium is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family comprising nine species. It is the only genus in the subfamily Corymbioideae and the tribe Corymbieae. The species have leaves with parallel veins, strongly reminiscent of monocots, in a rosette and compounded inflorescences may be compact or loosely composed racemes, panicles or corymbs. Remarkable for species in the daisy family, each flower head contains just one, bisexual, mauve, pink or white disc floret within a sheath consisting of just two large involucral bracts. The species are all endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa, where they are known as plampers.

<i>Zyrphelis</i> Genus of flowering plants

Zyrphelis is a genus of African flowering plants in the tribe Astereae within the family Asteraceae.

<i>Felicia josephinae</i> An annual plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Felicia josephinae is a roughly hairy annual herbaceous plant of 15–20 cm (6–8 in) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It branches near its base, and has few leaves along its stems. The lower leaves are set oppositely, inverted lance-shaped, relatively large at 3–7 cm long and ⅔–1¼ cm wide, and soon withering, while the higher ones are smaller and relatively narrower. In the axils of the leaves grow flower heads of 7–8 mm wide on stalks of up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long, topped with an involucre of about 5 mm (0.20 in) high and 4 mm (0.16 in) wide, consisting of eleven to thirteen bracts in two rows with bristles near the tip, eight to nine white or cream-coloured ligulate florets surrounding fourteen or fifteen deep purple disc florets. Flowers can be found in September and October. The species is an endemic species that can only be found in a small area along the west coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Mairia crenata</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia crenata is a perennial herbaceous plant of mostly 2–15 cm (1–6 in) high that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has a woody rootstock of up to 5 cm (2 in) long, from which brown, fleshy roots develop. The five to eighteen, hard and leathery, spoon-shaped leaves are in one to three rosettes, have a distinct main vein, blunt or pointy tip, often dark red or blackish margins with rounded teeth and a 1⁄2–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in) long stalk-like foot, often initially somewhat woolly hairy, on particularly the lower surface and the main vein, but this is easily rubbed off the shiny surfaces. Each rosette produces mostly one, sometimes up to four, mostly rusty or whitish woolly hairy, brown or dark red inflorescence stalks, usually 1+1⁄2–15 cm long, each with two to eight, initially woolly, line-shaped to oval bracts, the lowest up to 3 cm (1.2 in), decreasing size further up, and carrying mostly one, rarely up to three flower heads. The flower heads have a bell-shaped involucre with about 40 bracts, sixteen to thirty three violet to white ray florets of about 1+1⁄4–1+7⁄8 cm long, and many yellow disc florets. The species flowers anywhere between February and December but only after a fire has destroyed the overhead biomass or serious disturbance. It is an endemic species that is restricted to the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.

<i>Felicia heterophylla</i> A perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Felicia heterophylla is a roughly hairy annual plant in the family Asteraceae. It has alternate leaves of 1–5 cm long with an entire margin or few inconspicuous teeth. The flower heads are set individually at the tip of its stems, and contain a whorl of purplish blue ray florets around a center of blackish blue disk florets. Flower heads appear in winter and spring. It is called true-blue daisy in English and bloublomastertjie in Afrikaans. It is an endemic species that only occurs in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Mairia coriacea</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia coriacea is a perennial plant assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has broad, tough and leathery, evergreen leaves. These have a narrowed foot and an entire margin or a few shallow, irregular teeth. They grow in a rosette directly from the rootstock. The plant produces flower heads with one whorl of white to mauve ray florets around many yellow disc florets, with one or few on top of a dark reddish, woolly stalk. Flower heads appear after the overhead vegetation burnt down, often destroying the leaves in the process. It can be found in the southern mountains of South Africa's Western Cape province. It is called leather leaves in English.

<i>Felicia bellidioides</i> A perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Felicia bellidioides is a perennial plant of up to about 25 cm (10 in) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Most of the narrowly inverted egg-shaped leaves are silky hairy and in a basal rosette with no or few very narrow bracts on the stalk in the subspecies bellidioides. In the subspecies foliosa, the narrower leaves are not silky hairy but variously bristly and glandular, with more and larger bracts on the inflorescence stalk. The flowerheads sit individually on top of a long peduncle and consist of an involucre with only two worls of bracts, about twenty purplish blue ray florets, surrounding many yellow disc florets. It occurs in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Felicia wrightii is a low, up to 20 cm (8 in) high, perennial, herbaceous plant with conspicuous basal leaf rosettes, and runners that end in rosettes. It has narrow bracts along the inflorescence stalks on top of which are individual flower heads with an involucre of three whorls of bracts, about sixteen ray florets with about 1 cm long, pale blue straps, that encircle many yellow disc florets. No fertile seeds have been found, so this species may solely reproduce vegetatively. The species is only known from one location in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, where it grows on damp stream banks.

<i>Mairia burchellii</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia burchellii is a tufted perennial plant of up to 15 cm (6 in) assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has narrow leaves of up to 5 mm (0.20 in) wide, with single main vein and an entire margin. Flower heads only occur after a fire has destroyed the standing vegetation, mostly in November or between February and June. The flower heads sit individually or with a few on the tip of a purplish stalk, with a few narrow bracts, and consist of a row of pinkish ray florets around many yellow disc florets. It can be found in the southwest of the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Mairia petiolata</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia petiolata is a tufted, variably hairy, perennial plant of up to 15 cm (6 in) assigned to the family Asteraceae. Its leaves are in a ground rosette, and have a stalk of mostly 2–5 cm long and an inverted egg-shaped to elliptic, 61⁄2–9 cm (2.6–4.6 in) long and 2–3 cm wide leaf blade, with a toothed margin. It mostly has two flower heads at the tip of the branches of each erect, dark reddish brown scape. The flower heads have a bell- to cup-shaped involucre that consists of 20–24, purplish, overlapping bracts in 3–4 whorls. These protect 12–16 pink, ray florets, surrounding many yellow disc florets. This species was only seen flowering once, in December. It is known from one location in the Langeberg, Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Mairia robusta</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia robusta is a tufted, white-woolly, perennial, herbaceous plant of up to 30 cm (1 ft) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has large, robust, hard and leathery leaves, with a white woolly hairy, nontransparent underside, while the felty hairs on the top are lost with age. Only at a few occasions, flowers have been observed, in June, October and December, always after a fire. The flower heads sit individually at the tip of white-woolly scapes, with 14–16 purplish pink to white ray florets surrounding a yellow disc. M. robusta is an endemic species that is restricted to rocky mountain slopes in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Mairia hirsuta</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia hirsuta is a tufted perennial, herbaceous plant of up to 40 cm high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Most of its narrow to broad elliptic or inverted egg-shaped leaves are part of the basal rosette, have margin that is rolled under, with rounded or pointy teeth or with some peg-like extensions, lightly woolly on the upper surface and densely woolly on the underside, but always the green remains visible. Flower heads have been found from July to November, mostly after a fire or when the soil has been disturbed. The species can be found in the southern mountains of the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Felicia cana is a low and slender shrublet of up to 15 cm high, covered in white felty hairs, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has alternately arranged leaves, and flower heads of about 16 mm (0.63 in) across, with 3–4 whorls of involucral bracts, and about 20 blue purple ray florets, surrounding many yellow disc florets in the centre. Very characteristic for the species are also the middle-long hairs with forked tips on the surface of its fruits. It is an endemic species that is restricted to a zone along the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Felicia tenella</i> A annual or biennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Felicia tenella is an annual, sometimes biennial, herbaceous plant that may be slightly woody at its base, of 5–70 cm tall, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. The species is very variable in size and hairiness. Its branches may be erect or ascending, and the leaves are narrowly line-shaped, 2–5 cm long and about 1 mm (0.04 in) wide. The leaves have a callous tip, lack visible nerves, and are mostly rigidly ciliate. The flower heads sit individually at the tip of stalks, have an involucre of three whorls of bracts, and about thirty light blue ray florets surrounding many yellow disc florets. Four subspecies are recognised. The species naturally occurs in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.

<i>Felicia</i> (plant) Genus of shrublets, perennials and annuals in the daisy family

Felicia is a genus of small shrubs, perennial or annual herbaceous plants, with 85 known species, that is assigned to the daisy family. Like in almost all Asteraceae, the individual flowers are 5-merous, small and clustered in typical heads, and which are surrounded by an involucre of, in this case between two and four whorls of, bracts. In Felicia, the centre of the head is taken by yellow, seldom whitish or blackish blue disc florets, and is almost always surrounded by one single whorl of mostly purple, sometimes blue, pink, white or yellow ligulate florets and rarely ligulate florets are absent. These florets sit on a common base and are not individually subtended by a bract. Most species occur in the Cape Floristic Region, which is most probably the area where the genus originates and had most of its development. Some species can be found in the eastern half of Africa up to Sudan and the south-western Arabian peninsula, while on the west coast species can be found from the Cape to Angola and one species having outposts on the Cameroon-Nigeria border and central Nigeria. Some species of Felicia are cultivated as ornamentals and several hybrids have been developed for that purpose.

References

  1. ↑ Flann, C (ed) 2009+ Global Compositae Checklist Archived 2014-11-06 at archive.today
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Herman, P.P.J.; Zinnecker-Wiegand, U. (2016). "A taxonomic revision of the genus Mairia (Asteraceae, Astereae) in South Africa". South African Journal of Botany. 105: 45–60. doi: 10.1016/j.sajb.2016.02.202 .
  3. 1 2 Manning, John (2018). Field Guide to Fynbos. Penguin Random House South Africa. ISBN   9781775845911.
  4. ↑ Ortiz, Santiago; Zinnecker-Wiegand, Ursula (2011). "Valid publication of names in Astereae originally proposed in 1990 in a University of Munich dissertation". Taxon. 60 (4). International Association for Plant Taxonomy: 1194–1198. doi:10.1002/tax.604022. JSTOR   41317339.
  5. ↑ Goldblatt, P.; Manning, John C. (2016). "Nomenclatural adjustments in African plants 2" (PDF). Bothalia. 46 (1).
  6. ↑ Grau, Jürke (1971). "On the Generic Delimitation of South African Asteraceae" (PDF). Mitteilungen der Botanischer Staatssammlung München. 10: 275–279.
  7. ↑ Michael L. Charters. "Flora of Southern Africa - plantnames H-O". California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations and Wildflowers and Other Plants of Southern California.
  8. ↑ Brouillet, Luc; Lowrey, Timothy K.; Urbatsch, Lowell; Karaman-Castro, Vesna; Sancho, Gisela; Wagstaff, Steve; Semple, John C. "37: Astereae (Phylogeny and evolution of the Astereae (Compositae or Asteraceae))". In Funk, V.A; A. Susanna; T. Stuessy; R. Bayer (eds.). Systematics, Evolution and Biogeography of the Compositae. Vienna, Austria: IAPT. pp. 449–490.
  9. ↑ Gibbs Russell, G.E.; Welman, W.G.M.; Retief, E.; Immelman, K.L.; Germishuizen, G.; Pienaar, B.J.; Van Wyk, M.; Nicholas, A. (1987). "List of species of southern African plants". Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa. 2 (1–2): 1–152 (part 1), 1–270 (part 2).
  10. ↑ "Species list: Mairia". SANBI Threatened Species Programme.
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