Geosiris

Geosiris aphylla is a mykoheterotrophe, loose leaf green plant species and the only species of its genus in the family of Iris Family ( Iridaceae ).

Description

Geosiris aphylla is a small herbaceous plant. It operates no more photosynthesis, but lives mykoheterotroph of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, so it is completely dependent on their diet of fungi. The rhizome is tuberous, the un - branched stems up little like the whole plant pale white and reddish to purple. To find in him only a few, alternate standing, scale-like leaves, which are membranous.

Bloom time is from December to February. The terminal inflorescence is one in a spathe standing of two bracts Doppelschraubel and is composed of a stationary to eighteen crowded flowers. Good mature plants form additional Seitenfloreszenzen, which are formed from the armpit of a carrier sheet, the opposite to the axle itself is a cover page.

The strong sweet-scented flowers are hermaphrodite, sessile, actinomorphic and threefold, the short-lived perianth consists of two sheets of circles and is spread horizontally. The bloom are the same size and shape, obovate to lanceolate elliptical, grown in the lower part together in a short corolla tube and colored blue to blue-violet. The three stamens are fused together, but at the corolla tube. The stamens are short and broad, the anthers oblong face away from the flower center. The stylus is divided into three branches scars. About pollinators nothing is known, however, color, flower structure and fragrance point to insects.

The ovary is inferior, placentation central angle continuously and contains numerous ovules. The fruit is a capsule, and contains numerous tiny seeds.

Dissemination

Geosiris aphylla is endemic in eastern and northern Madagascar and Sainte Marie. There they found from sea level to altitudes of 1,900 meters. They settled shady places in forests on rich soils.

Systematics and Botanical History

Species and genus were first described in 1895 by Henri Ernest Baillon, the genus name means as much as "Earth Iris", the Art epithet refers to the Laubblattlosigkeit of plants. Baillon they turned to the sword lily family, a placement, the Engler contradicted in his Syllabus 1897, by it treated as a Burmanniaceae. However, Fredric Jonker had this in his review of the Burmanniaceae back because Geosiris " deviates too strong to be classified as a Burmanniaceae " and placed it later in a separate family, the Geosiridaceae.

Later writers have taken her either also as a separate family or as Iris family, Peter Goldblatt classified along than the latter. These assumptions were strengthened in 1994 by extensive morphological and embryological studies of Traudel Rübsamen.

Evidence

• T. rapeseed Weustenfeld, V. Mukielka & U. Hamann: To embryology, morphology and systematic position of Geosiris aphylla Baillon ( Monocotyledoneae - Geosiridaceae / Iridaceae ) In: Bot Jahrb Syst. 115. 1994, 475-545
• L. Watson, M. J. Dallwitz: The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval, access: April 10, 2008 Online