Blandfordia
Blandfordia grandiflora
Blandfordia is a genus alone forms the Blandfordiaceae family within the order of asparagus -like ( Asparagales ).
Features
The species are perennial, herbaceous plant with a bulbous, short rhizome. At this sitting fibrous roots. The leaves are up to a meter long, alternate and standing in two rows ( distich ). You are seated and surrounded sheath-like the rhizome, so an onion -like structure. The leaf blades are linear with numerous parallel nerves. The stomata are anomocytisch and are located only on the lower leaf surface ( abaxial ).
The roots have xylem vessels with simple or stair -shaped perforations, stem and leaves only tracheids.
The inflorescences are terminal clusters with up to 1.5 meters in height and up to 20 flowers. The flowers are hermaphrodite. The flower stem rises in the armpit smaller bracts and has two bracts. The six bracts ( tepals ) are fused into a bell-shaped tube, with six large bells corners. The color is red, yellow, orange or yellow.
The stamens of the six stamens are fused to one-third to one-half of the corolla tube. The latrorsen, dorsifixen stamens have two counters, each with two spore sacs, which open with slots. The pollen is ellipsoidal, sulcat with a granular exine. The diameter is 28 to 50 micrometers.
The upper permanent stamp consists of three carpels. There is a stylus with a dreifurchigen scar. The anatropen, bitegmischen and crassinucellaten ovules are in each of the three ovary compartments in two rows on the central angle constant placenta.
The fruit is a capsule septizide. The seeds are brown and filled with hair-like papillae. The abundant endosperm is starch free.
Thickness is formed in the root bark and in leaf sheaths, leaf blades which are free from starch. It also chelidonic, flavone C- glycosides and cyanidin glycosides were detected.
The basic chromosome number is x = 17 and x = 27
Flowers Ecology
The flowers are usually of honey -eaters ( Meliphagidae ) pollinated ( Ornithophilie ). B. grandiflora in the Blue Mountains, however, is self-pollinating, while the lowland populations are self-sterile.
Flower formation is also dependent on the nutrient content of the soil. In the five years after a fire, most plants no longer flourish once or twice more after a fire.
Dissemination
The genus is endemic to Australia. She comes here only in the southeast of the mainland and in Tasmania in subtropical and temperate areas. They appear mainly in the nations, particularly in seasonally flooded sites. The main distribution is in coastal areas below 1000 m. Some isolated populations also occur in the Blue Mountains.
System
Within the order Asparagales form the Blandfordiaceae together with the Boryaceae, Lanariaceae, Asteliaceae and Hypoxidaceae a clade. The family consists of a single genus Blandfordia with four ways:
- Blandfordia cunninghamii Lindl.
- Blandfordia grandiflora R.Br.
- Blandfordia nobilis Sm
- Blandfordia punicea ( Labill. ) Sweet
Botanical history
The genus was first described by James Edward Smith in 1804 on the basis of B. nobilis and in honor of George Spencer Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, named. Until 1845 the other three species were known.
In the 19th century, the genre was a popular ornamental plant in England.
Swell
The article is based on the following documents:
- H.T. Clifford, J. G. Conran: Blandfordiaceae, in: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.): The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, Vol.3, Springer, Berlin 1998, pp. 148-150, ISBN 978-3-540-64060-8
- Tony Cavanagh: Blandfordia in History, in Australian Plants, March 1996 ( online).