Pseudomertensia | |
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Pseudomertensia echioides | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Boraginales |
Family: | Boraginaceae |
Subfamily: | Boraginoideae |
Genus: | Pseudomertensia Riedl |
Type species | |
Pseudomertensia elongata (Decaisne) Riedl | |
Species | |
Pseudomertensia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. They are perennial herbs with blue or bluish purple flowers. Their natural range is from Iran to the Himalayas. [1] None have been found in China [2] or Russia. [3] P. echioides, and the type species for the genus, P. elongata, [4] are occasionally cultivated as ornamentals. [5]
Most sources list about 12 species, [6] [7] but some include as many as 14. [8] Pseudomertensia was once thought to be closely related to Mertensia , but molecular phylogenetic studies have placed it close to Myosotis .
Author citations are from Tropicos. [8]
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In 1967, Harald Udo von Riedl erected the genus Pseudomertensia for eight species which, at that time, were recognized in Mertensia. [9] The genus is named for its apparent, but false, relationship with Mertensia. [10]
The species recognized by Riedl were P. chitralensis, P. echioides, P. efornicata, P. elongata, P. parviflora, P. edelbergii, P. primuloides, and P. lindelofioides. [11] The first five of these are still universally recognized. Some authors treat P. edelbergii as a variety of P. trollii, and P. primuloides as a variety of P. moltkioides. [6] Some authors believe that P. lindelofioides is misplaced in Pseudomertensia, and they place it in Lindelofia as Lindelofia olgea . [3] It is indigenous to Turkestan and Afghanistan. Lindelofia longiflora has been sampled in molecular phylogenetic studies, but L. olgea has not.
The distinctive Pakistani species, Pseudomertensia sericophylla is placed by some authors in a monospecific genus as Decalepidanthus sericophyllus. [6] [12] Decalepidanthus is occasionally misspelled. It means "flower with ten scales". [13]
After Pseudomertensia was established in 1967, six more species were described in 1970 by es:Syed Muhammad Anwar Kazmi in the second of a series of seven articles revising the Boraginaceae of Pakistan. [14] A few more species were added later, the last of these being P. flavescens in 1996. [15]
The segregation of Pseudomertensia from Mertensia has been confirmed by cladistic analysis of DNA sequences. These place Pseudomertensia closest to Myosotis, at least among the genera that have been sampled so far. [16] The sampling of genera in taxonomic studies of Boraginaceae has not been sufficient to determine whether Pseudomertensia and Myosotis are sister groups. [17]
Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-notfamily, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146, to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution.
Mertensia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. They are perennial herbaceous plants with blue or sometimes white flowers that open from pink-tinged buds. Such a change in flower color is common in Boraginaceae and is caused by an increase of pH in the flower tissue. Mertensia is one of several plants that are commonly called "bluebell". In spite of their common name, the flowers are usually salverform (trumpet-shaped) rather than campanulate (bell-shaped).
Leptopus, the maidenbushes, are a genus of plants in the family Phyllanthaceae native to southern Asia from the Caucasus east to China and Maluku. The plants are monoecious herbs and shrubs with simple, entire leaves and small, green flowers.
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Alangium is a small genus of flowering plants. The genus is included either in a broad view of the dogwood family Cornaceae, or as the sole member of its own family Alangiaceae. Alangium has about 40 species, but some of the species boundaries are not entirely clear. The type species for Alangium is Alangium decapetalum, which is now treated as a subspecies of Alangium salviifolium. All of the species are shrubs or small trees, except the liana Alangium kwangsiense. A. chinense, A. platanifolium, and A. salviifolium are known in cultivation.
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Reynoldsia is a formerly recognised genus of plants in the ivy family, Araliaceae. In 2003, Kew Gardens published a checklist for Araliaceae, in which eight species were recognized for Reynoldsia: four from Samoa, two from Tahiti, one from the Marquesas, and one from Hawaii. In 2010, a phylogenetic comparison of DNA data showed that Reynoldsia was polyphyletic, consisting of two groups that are not each other's closest relatives. In a companion paper, three of the species were "sunk" into synonymy with others, reducing the number of species to five. All species that were formerly in Reynoldsia are now in Polyscias subgenus Tetraplasandra, a subgenus of 21 species indigenous to Malesia and the Pacific islands.
Tetraplasandra is a no longer recognised genus of plants in the ivy family, Araliaceae. They are small to medium trees, of mesic to wet forests.
Oldenlandia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is pantropical in distribution and has about 240 species. The type species for the genus is Oldenlandia corymbosa.
Guettarda is a plant genus in the family Rubiaceae. Most of these plants are known by the common name velvetseed. Estimates of the number of species range from about 50 to 162. Most of the species are neotropical. Twenty are found in New Caledonia and one reaches Australia. A few others are found on islands and in coastal areas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Lasianthus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are tropical subshrubs, shrubs, or rarely, small trees. They inhabit the understory of primary forests.
Machaonia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It has about 32 species. All are indigenous to the neotropics. None has a unique common name. Some species have been called "alfilerillo", a Spanish name for the common and well-known genus Erodium. The type species for Machaonia is Machaonia acuminata.
Rondeletia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is endemic to the Neotropics. There are around 160 species.
Boraginoideae is a subfamily of the plant family Boraginaceae s.s, with about 42 genera. That family is defined in a much broader sense in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system of classification for flowering plants. The APG has not specified any subfamilial structure within Boraginaceae s.l.
Platycarpha is a genus of South African plants dandelion subfamily within the daisy family.
Hedyotis (starviolet) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Many species of this genus such as Hedyotis biflora, H. corymbosa and H. diffusa are well known medicinal plants. Hedyotis is native to tropical and subtropical Asia and to islands of the northwest Pacific. It comprises about 115 species. The type species for the genus is Hedyotis fruticosa.
Kadua is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises 29 species, all restricted to Polynesia. Twenty-two of these are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Some of the species are common at high elevation. Others are single-island endemics or very rare, and a few are probably extinct. Kadua affinis is widely distributed in Hawaii and is polymorphic. The type species for the genus is Kadua acuminata.
Hymenodictyon is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It has about 30 species. All are native to the Old World. The wood of Hymenodictyon orixense is soft and has limited use, mostly for boxes. The type species for Hymenodictyon is Hymenodictyon orixense.