Cycnium

Last updated

Cycnium
Cycnium tubulosum Maasai Mara 3.jpg
Cycnium tubulosum in Maasai Mara, Kenya
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Orobanchaceae
Tribe: Buchnereae
Genus: Cycnium
E.Mey. ex Benth. [1]

Cycnium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Orobanchaceae. Its native range is tropical and southern Africa and Madagascar. [2]

Plants in this genus are annual or perennial hemiparasitic herbs or small shrubs that turn black when they die. Leaves usually occur opposite or near-opposite, but occasionally alternate or in whorls of three. Leaves may pinnatisect or bipinnatisect, with incised or entire margins, and may be sessile or shortly petiolate. Flowers may be terminally spicate or racemose, solitary-axillary, or supra-axillary. Flowers are edicellate to sessile or subsessile. Bracts are leaf-like. In species in which they are present, bracteoles are inserted on the pedicel or are adnate to the base of the calyx tube. The tube-ridged calyx has 4-5 lobes which are equal or subequal. The corolla is 5-lobed and salver-form. The tube is curved, bent, or straight, covered with stipitate glands and with a unilaterally bearded throat. The limb is bilabiate and zygomorphic, with the lower lip 3-lobed. Anthers each have one theca. The ovary is bilocular, variable, compressed or not. Ovules are numerous. Fruit is either a capsule or a berry. [3] [4]

Species

As of March 2022, Plants of the World Online accepted the following species: [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Nepeta</i> Genus of flowering plants, known for effect on cats (catnip) in the mint family (Lamiaceae)

Nepeta is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. The genus name, from Latin nepeta (“catnip”), is reportedly in reference to Nepete, an ancient Etruscan city. There are about 250 species.

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

Bauhinia is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae and tribe Bauhinieae, in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and Johann, Swiss-French botanists.

<i>Leucas</i> Genus of plants

Leucas is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae, first described by Robert Brown in 1810. It contains over 200 species, widespread over much of Africa, and southern and eastern Asia with a few species in Queensland and on various islands in the Indian Ocean.

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

Myrica is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America, and missing only from Australia. Some botanists split the genus into two genera on the basis of the catkin and fruit structure, restricting Myrica to a few species, and treating the others in Morella.

<i>Adenia</i> Genus of plants

Adenia is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family Passifloraceae. It is distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. The centers of diversity are in Madagascar, eastern and western tropical Africa, and Southeast Asia. The genus name Adenia comes from "aden", reported as the Arabic name for the plant by Peter Forsskål, the author of the genus.

<i>Indigofera</i> Genus of plants

Indigofera is a large genus of over 750 species of flowering plants belonging to the pea family Fabaceae. They are widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

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

Clerodendrum is a genus of flowering plants formerly placed in the family Verbenaceae, but now considered to belong to the Lamiaceae (mint) family. Its common names include glorybower, bagflower and bleeding-heart. It is currently classified in the subfamily Ajugoideae, being one of several genera transferred from Verbenaceae to Lamiaceae in the 1990s, based on phylogenetic analysis of morphological and molecular data.

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

Olax is a plant genus in the family Olacaceae. The name derives from the Latin, olax (malodorous), and refers to the unpleasant scent of some of the Olax species. Olax is an Old World genus represented by several climbers, some species have leaves and fruits smelling of garlic such as Olax subscorpioidea and Olax gambecola, seeds of the latter are used as condiments in parts of West Africa. In India Olax nana is well known as one of the first species to emerge after forest fires, the shoots growing directly from buried roots.

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

Lasiopetalum, commonly known as velvet bushes, is a genus of about forty-five species of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae, all endemic to Australia.

<i>Trianthema</i> Genus of succulents

Trianthema is a genus of flowering plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae. Members of the genus are annuals or perennials generally characterized by fleshy, opposite, unequal, smooth-margined leaves, a prostrate growth form, flowers with five perianth segments subtended by a pair of bracts, and a fruit with a winged lid. The genus contains about 30 described species growing in tropical and subtropical regions, especially Australia. One common species, Trianthema portulacastrum, desert horse purslane, is frequent as a weed in agricultural areas and is widely distributed.

<i>Vachellia</i> Genus of legumes

Vachellia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, commonly known as thorn trees or acacias. It belongs to the subfamily Mimosoideae. Its species were considered members of genus Acacia until 2009. Vachellia can be distinguished from other acacias by its capitate inflorescences and spinescent stipules. Before discovery of the New World, Europeans in the Mediterranean region were familiar with several species of Vachellia, which they knew as sources of medicine, and had names for them that they inherited from the Greeks and Romans.

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

Artabotrys is a genus of plants in the Annonaceae family. There are over 100 species in the Old World tropics, with 31 species in Africa. It is part of the custard apple family (Annonaceae). All species are small trees or shrubs with a tendency to climb. Leaves are simple and alternate, without hairs. Bisexual flowers are borne singly or in clusters opposite the leaves. The 6-petalled flowers are scented, and the plant bears fleshy fruits.

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

Orphium is a plant genus in the Gentian family (Gentianaceae), endemic to South Africa. The name derives from the legendary Greek musician Orpheus. The genus contains a single accepted species, Orphium frutescens, commonly known as the sea rose. Orphium arenarium C.Presl has been proposed as another species, but data suggest that it is synonymous with Chironia arenaria E.Mey.

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

Catophractes alexandri, the only species in the genus Catophractes, is a spiny shrub or small tree up to 3m tall, belonging to the family Bignoniaceae and occurring in the hot, low-rainfall regions of Namibia, the Northern Cape, Kalahari Desert, Botswana, western Zimbabwe and Limpopo. Preferring calcrete, limestone outcrops and soils, the species often forms pure communities, or grows in association with Colophospermum mopane, Rhigozum virgatum, Phaeoptilum spinosum and Acacia nebrownii. It is parasitised by several Tapinanthus spp.

<i>Cycnium tubulosum</i> Genus of flowering plants belonging to the broomrape family

Cycnium tubulosum, also known as the vlei ink-flower and the tissue paper flower, is a slender hemiparasitic perennial plant of the broomrape family. Its range includes much of southern and eastern Africa, from South Africa to Ethiopia, including Madagascar. It has creeping, straggling or upright stems, with few narrow, entire leaves and erect, white or pinkish, slightly zygomorph flowers on a long tube, with five lobes, reminiscent of a Phlox-flower. It may not always be fully dependent on the supply of minerals by other plants, but usually makes connections with the roots of grasses. It can be found in moist, short grasslands, reaching altitudes of about 1,550 m (5,090 ft). Its conservation status in South-Africa is "least concern".

<i>Plicosepalus</i>

Plicosepalus is a genus of hemiparasitic flowering plants belonging to the family Loranthaceae.

References

  1. "Cycnium E.Mey. ex Benth.", The International Plant Names Index , retrieved 2022-03-21
  2. 1 2 "Cycnium E.Mey. ex Benth.", Plants of the World Online , Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , retrieved 2022-03-21
  3. "7623.000 Cycnium E. Mey. ex Benth". Mozambique Flora. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  4. "Cycnium E. Mey. ex Benth. [family SCROPHULARIACEAE]". JSTOR. Retrieved 23 September 2023.