Cytinus

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Cytinus
Cytinus ruber (flowers).jpg
Cytinus ruber from Sardinia
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Cytinaceae
Genus: Cytinus
L.
Species

See text

Cytinus is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. Species in this genus do not produce chlorophyll, but rely fully on its host plant. Cytinus usually parasitizes Cistus and Halimium , two genera of plants in the family Cistaceae. It has also been found on Ptilostemon chamaepeuce.

Contents

Several species are found in the Mediterranean Region, South Africa, with a possibly undescribed species from Madagascar. [1]

Biology

C. capensis and C. sanguineus are dioecious, while C. hypocistis is monoecious. [2]

C. hypocistis has been shown to infect mainly Halimium halimifolium and Cistus monspeliensis in Portugal. [3]

Systematics

The genus Cytinus was previously included in the parasitic family Rafflesiaceae, but is now put into the family Cytinaceae [2] (order Malvales), together with the genus Bdallophytum with four species.

Cytinus ruber is no longer considered a separate species, but is now a subspecies of C. hypocistis.

Uses

The flower of C. hypocistis Illustration Cytinus hypocistis0.jpg
The flower of C. hypocistis

The young C. hypocistis is cooked as an asparagus substitute and an extract has been used in herbal medicine for dysentery, throat tumors and as an astringent. [4] C. ruber is also edible and was used in folk medicine as an emmenagogue. [5]

Species

Footnotes

  1. parasiticplants.siu.edu: Cytinaceae
  2. 1 2 Nickrent et al. 2004
  3. Thorogood & Hiscock 2007
  4. "Cytinus hypocistis (Rafflesiaceae)". Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. National Agricultural Library.
  5. The University of Reading: Cytinus hypocistis Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

Related Research Articles

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

Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flowers in the world. The genus contains approximately 28 species, and is found throughout Southeast Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cistaceae</span> Family of flowering plants comprising rock roses

The Cistaceae are a small family of plants known for their beautiful shrubs, which are profusely covered by flowers at the time of blossom. This family consists of about 170(-200) species in nine genera that are not very distinct, distributed primarily in the temperate areas of Europe and the Mediterranean basin, but also found in North America; a limited number of species are found in South America. Most Cistaceae are subshrubs and low shrubs, and some are herbaceous. They prefer dry and sunny habitats. Cistaceae grow well on poor soils, and many of them are cultivated in gardens.

<i>Cistus</i> Genus of flowering plants in the rock rose family Cistaceae

Cistus is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 20 species. They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal through to the Middle East, and also on the Canary Islands.

<i>Cistus ladanifer</i> Species of flowering plants in the rock rose family Cistaceae

Cistus ladanifer is a species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae. It is native to the western Mediterranean region. Common names include gum rockrose, labdanum, common gum cistus, and brown-eyed rockrose.

<i>Halimium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the rock rose family Cistaceae

Halimium is a genus of 12 species of evergreen or semi-evergreen subshrubs in the family Cistaceae, closely related to Cistus. They are native to Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor, with the centre of diversity in the western Mediterranean region.

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

The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including Rafflesia arnoldii, which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are endoparasites of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae) and lack stems, leaves, roots, and any photosynthetic tissue. They rely entirely on their host plants for both water and nutrients, and only then emerge as flowers from the roots or lower stems of the host plants.

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

Olacaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Santalales. They are woody plants, native throughout the tropical regions of the world. As of July 2021, the circumscription of the family varies; some sources maintain a broad family, others split it into seven segregate families.

Bdallophytum is a genus of parasitic flowering plants with five described species. It parasitizes on the roots of plants of the genus Bursera, such as Bursera simaruba. The genus is endemic to the Neotropics.

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

Cytinaceae is a family of parasitic flowering plants. It comprises two genera, Cytinus and Bdallophytum, totalling ten species.

<i>Orobanche minor</i> Species of flowering plant

Orobanche minor, the hellroot, common broomrape, lesser broomrape, small broomrape or clover broomrape, is a holoparasitic flowering plant belonging to the family Orobanchaceae. It is one of about 150 non-photosynthetic plants in the genus Orobanche that parasitize autotrophic plants.

When the APG II system of plant classification was published in April 2003, fifteen genera and three families were placed incertae sedis in the angiosperms, and were listed in a section of the appendix entitled "Taxa of uncertain position".

<i>Cynomorium</i> Genus of plant of the family Cynomoriaceae

Cynomorium is a genus of parasitic perennial flowering plants in the family Cynomoriaceae. The genus consists of only one species, Cynomorium coccineum. Its placement in the Saxifragales was resolved in 2016 with the help of nuclear, plastid, and mitochondrial sequences obtained from next-generation sequencing. Common names include the misleading Maltese fungus or Maltese mushroom; also desert thumb, red thumb, tarthuth (Bedouin) and suoyang (Chinese). A rare or local species, it grows in dry, rocky or sandy soils, often in salt marshes or other saline habitats close to the coast. It has had a wide variety of uses in European, Arabian and Chinese herbal medicine.

<i>Cytinus hypocistis</i> Species of plant

Cytinus hypocistis is an ant-pollinated species of parasitic plant in the family Cytinaceae having four subspecies. It is found primarily in locations that surround the Mediterranean Sea, and is the type for the genus Cytinus. The binomial has been conserved.

Cytinus visseri, commonly known as the Northern vampire cup, is a holoparasitic flowering plant in the family Cytinaceae. This flower favorably interacts with another plant, Helichrysum reflexum, that is a woody shrub in South Africa.

<i>Cistus albidus</i> Species of flowering plants in the rock rose family Cistaceae

Cistus albidus, the grey-leaved cistus, is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae, with pink to purple flowers, native to south-western Europe and western north Africa.

<i>Cistus clusii</i> Species of flowering plants in the rock rose family Cistaceae

Cistus clusii is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae, with white flowers, native to south west and south central Europe and north Africa. It has been wrongly called Cistus libanotis by many authors.

<i>Cistus crispus</i> Species of flowering plants in the rock rose family Cistaceae

Cistus crispus is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae, with pink to purple flowers, native to south-western Europe and western north Africa.

Julie F. Barcelona is a Filipina botanist and taxonomist working as Research Associate at University of Canterbury. She is mostly known for her research on the Philippine members of the genus Rafflesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Lee Nickrent</span>

Daniel Lee Nickrent is an American botanist, working in plant evolutionary biology, including the subdisciplines of genomics, phylogenetics, systematics, population genetics, and taxonomy. A major focus has been parasitic flowering plants, particularly of the sandalwood order (Santalales). His interest in photographic documentation and photographic databases has led to several photographic databases including Parasitic Plant Connection, Phytoimages, Plant Checklist for the Rocky Mountain National Park, and Plant Checklist for the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.

<i>Cytinus sanguineus</i> Species of flowering plant

Cytinus sanguineus is a species of parasitic plant in the family Cytinaceae.

References

Further reading