Trithuria lanterna

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Trithuria lanterna
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Order: Nymphaeales
Family: Hydatellaceae
Genus: Trithuria
Species:
T. lanterna
Binomial name
Trithuria lanterna
Australia in the world (de-facto) (W3).svg
Trithuria lanterna is endemic to Australia [3]

Trithuria lanterna is a species of plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Australia. [3]

Contents

Description

Vegetative characteristics

Trithuria lanterna is a 10 mm tall and 30 mm wide, [4] annual herb [5] [6] with very short stems bearing fibrous roots and basal, linear, [5] 5–18 mm long, and 0.8 wide leaves. [5] [7] It often displays red colouration. [5]

Generative characteristics

It is a monoecious species with bisexual reproductive units ("flowers"). [6] The several, sessile [5] reproductive units have 2–4 [6] lanceolate, 2–3 mm long involucral bracts, [5] 1–2 stamens with 0.6–1.0 mm long anthers attached to [6] up to 1.5 mm long filaments, as well as 6-20 carpels. The ovoid-trigonous, 0.4 mm long, and 0.2 mm wide fruit with three prominent ribs is indehiscent, [5] or at least in one case dehiscent. [6] The ovoid, 0.3 mm long, translucent seed with a dark apex [5] is smooth. [5] [6] Flowering occurs from April to June. [7] [8]

Distribution

It is native to the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia. [3]

Taxonomy

It was published by David Alan Cooke in 1981. [3] [5] The type specimen was collected by R.L. Specht on Bickerton Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, South Bay, Northern Territory, Australia on the 14th of June 1948. [5] [6] It is placed in Trithuria sect. Hamannia. [9]

Etymology

The specific epithet lanterna, from the Latin lanterna meaning lantern, refers to the morphology of the pericarp, which has a three-windowed structure resembling a lantern. [5]

Conservation

It is not threatened. [8] The Nature Conservation Act status is least concern. [1] Likewise, the IUCN conservation status is least concern (LC). [2]

Ecology

It occurs in ephemeral pools, [10] seasonal swamps dominated by Melaleuca leucadendron, [5] and stream margins. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Style (botany)</span> Part of a flower

In botany, the style of an angiosperm flower is an organ of variable length that connects the ovary to the stigma. The style does not contain ovules; these are limited to the region of the gynoecium called the "ovary".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabombaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Cabombaceae are a family of aquatic, herbaceous flowering plants. A common name for its species is water shield. The family is recognised as distinct in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV system (2016). The family consists of two genera of aquatic plants, Brasenia and Cabomba, totalling six species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydatellaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Hydatellaceae are a family of small, aquatic flowering plants. The family consists of tiny, relatively simple plants occurring in Australasia and India. It was formerly considered to be related to the grasses and sedges, but has been reassigned to the order Nymphaeales as a result of DNA and morphological analyses showing that it represents one of the earliest groups to split off in flowering-plant phylogeny, rather than having a close relationship to monocots, which it bears a superficial resemblance to due to convergent evolution. The family includes only the genus Trithuria, which has at least 13 species, although species diversity in the family has probably been substantially underestimated.

<i>Trithuria</i> Genus of aquatic plants

Trithuria is a genus of small ephemeral aquatic herb that represent the only members of the family Hydatellaceae found in India, Australia, and New Zealand. All 13 described species of Trithuria are found in Australia, with the exception of T. inconspicua and T. konkanensis, from New Zealand and India respectively. Until DNA sequence data and a reinterpretation of morphology proved otherwise, these plants were believed to be monocots related to the grasses (Poaceae). They are unique in being the only plants besides two members of Triuridaceae in which the stamens are centred and surrounded by the pistils; in Hydatellaceae the resulting 'flowers' may instead represent condensed inflorescences or non-flowers.

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

Maundia is a genus of alismatid monocots, described in 1858. Maundia was formerly included in the family Juncaginaceae but is now considered to form a family of its own under the name Maundiaceae. It contains only one known species, Maundia triglochinoides, endemic to Australia.

<i>Trithuria inconspicua</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria inconspicua is a small aquatic herb of the family Hydatellaceae that is only found in New Zealand.

Terry Desmond Macfarlane is a botanist and taxonomist, who has worked in both Australia and Peru. A senior research scientist at the Western Australian Herbarium, Macfarlane is associate editor of its journal Nuytsia and currently collaborates with researchers across Australia and in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, Spain and United Kingdom. He was also involved in the development of FloraBase, the Western Australian flora database.

Nanjinganthus dendrostyla is a fossil plant known from Early Jurassic sediments in China and proposed by Fu, et al. to represent a pre-Cretaceous angiosperm. The material consists of numerous compression fossils which bear a resemblance to flowers. The segments bear prominent ridges, suggesting veins, and a few specimens have a branched axis perpendicular to the segments, interpreted by Fu, et al. as a branched style. Beneath the putative perianth, Fu, et al. interpret the existence of ovules enclosed in ovaries, however, the preservation of this region of the structure is poor.

<i>Trithuria austinensis</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria austinensis is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Western Australia.

<i>Trithuria australis</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria australis is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Western Australia.

<i>Trithuria bibracteata</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria bibracteata is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Western Australia.

<i>Trithuria cookeana</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria cookeana is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to the Northern Territory, Australia.

<i>Trithuria cowieana</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria cowieana is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to the Northern Territory, Australia.

<i>Trithuria filamentosa</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria filamentosa is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Tasmania, Australia.

<i>Trithuria fitzgeraldii</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria fitzgeraldii is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Western Australia.

<i>Trithuria konkanensis</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria konkanensis is a species of aquatic plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to India.

<i>Trithuria occidentalis</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria occidentalis is a species of plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Western Australia.

<i>Trithuria polybracteata</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria polybracteata is a species of plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to Western Australia.

<i>Trithuria submersa</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria submersa is a species of plant in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to the Australian states New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia.

<i>Trithuria inconspicua <span style="font-style:normal;">subsp.</span> brevistyla</i> Species of aquatic plant

Trithuria inconspicua subsp. brevistyla is a subspecies of Trithuria inconspicua in the family Hydatellaceae endemic to the South Island of New Zealand.

References

  1. 1 2 Queensland Government. (2024, May 20). Species profile — Trithuria lanterna. Retrieved November 9, 2024, from https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species-search/details/?id=10003
  2. 1 2 Brummitt, N. 2013. Trithuria lanterna. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T44392948A44408157. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T44392948A44408157.en. Accessed on 09 November 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Trithuria lanterna D.A.Cooke". Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  4. D.T. Liddle, I.D. Cowie, S.R. Hirst and B.M. Stuckey (2017). A field guide to plants of Darwin Sandsheet Heath. Report to Territory Natural Resource Management, Project NTRM00420. Top End Native Plant Society in collaboration with Northern Territory Herbarium, Northern Territory Government, Darwin.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Cooke, D. A. (1981). New species of Schoenus (Cyperaceae) and Trithuria (Hydatellaceae). Muelleria, 4(4), 299-303.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sokoloff, D. D., Remizowa, M. V., Macfarlane, T. D., & Rudall, P. J. (2008). Classification of the early‐divergent angiosperm family Hydatellaceae: One genus instead of two, four new species and sexual dimorphism in dioecious taxa. Taxon, 57(1), 179-200.
  7. 1 2 Trithuria lanterna D.A.Cooke. (n.d.). Atlas of Living Australia. Retrieved November 9, 2024, from https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2912486#ausTraits
  8. 1 2 3 Western Australian Herbarium & Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. (n.d.-c). Trithuria lanterna D.A.Cooke. Florabase—the Western Australian Flora. Retrieved November 9, 2024, from https://florabase.dbca.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/1140
  9. Sokoloff, D. D., Remizowa, M. V., Conran, J. G., Macfarlane, T. D., Ramsay, M. M., & Rudall, P. J. (2014). Embryo and seedling morphology in Trithuria lanterna (Hydatellaceae, Nymphaeales): new data for infrafamilial systematics and a novel type of syncotyly. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 174(4), 551-573.
  10. Sokoloff, D. D., Remizowa, M. V., Macfarlane, T. D., Tuckett, R. E., Ramsay, M. M., Beer, A. S., ... & Rudall, P. J. (2008). Seedling diversity in Hydatellaceae: implications for the evolution of angiosperm cotyledons. Annals of Botany, 101(1), 153-164.