Hesperaloe
Flowering Hesperaloe funifera in Mexico
Hesperaloe is a genus of flowering plants in the family of agave ( Agavaceae ). The botanical name is derived from the Greek word " έσπέρα " ( Hespera ) for evening or west and refers to the area of distribution in North America and the similarity to the genus Aloe.
- 4.1 Literature
- 4.2 Notes and references
Description
Vegetative characteristics
The species of the genus Hesperaloe are perennial, once flowering succulent plants that form clumps with zwiebeliger, fibrous base. They grow with stemless rosettes, the short form to long rhizomes and have a thick and fleshy taproot and numerous fiber roots. The few to numerous, linealischen - extended, succulent leaves are fibrous. They are upright either thin, narrow and bent to bent back or thick, wide and stiff. The leaves are either close together or far apart and form large rings. The blade tip is designed as a hard spike or weathering.
Inflorescences and flowers
The up to 5 meters high inflorescence is racemose to paniculate and is in the top half of 3-8 part inflorescences. The stalked, sixfold flowers are small, bell-shaped with more or less prone tepals. The perianth is tubular to narrowly or broadly bell-shaped to wheel-shaped - bell-shaped. The green, white and pink - brown to red, pink, salmon pink or coral- red and rarely yellow tepals have a fleshy keel, are approximately the same size, barely grown together and meet together on the fleshy, nectar flowers forming axis. The stamens do not protrude out. The anthers are dorsifix, arrow-shaped, open to the center of the flower out ( intrors ) and stand out or not. The upper continuous, triangular and dreifächrige ovary is ovate to oblong with numerous standing in two rows of ovules. The pistil is elongated and extends subsp only Hesperaloe parviflora. bechtoldii from the perianth out. The scar is clearly capitate and lined with papillae.
Fruit and seeds
The stalked, persistent, transversely wrinkled fruits are septicidale, woody, round to ovoid capsules rostrate or not. They contain large black, textured, thick and 1 mm, seeds.
Genetics
The basic chromosome number is x = 30
Ecology
As pollinators act as either hummingbirds and bees ( Hesperaloe parviflora ) or bats and night owls ( Hesperaloe funifera, Hesperaloe nocturna ). In Hesperaloe campanulata both Bestäubergruppen occur.
Systematics and distribution
The following internal systematics of the genus followed by Fritz Hochstätter:
The genus Hesperaloe is common in the state of Texas in the United States and in northern Mexico in the states of Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí. Two species are found in the west of the Sierra Madre Occidental and three species occur mainly in the eastern part of the Chihuahuan Desert.
The first description was in 1871 by George Engelmann. We distinguish between the following types:
- Hesperaloe campanulata G.D.Starr
- Hesperaloe chiangii ( G.D.Starr ) B.L.Turner
- Hesperaloe engelmannii Krauskopf ex Baker
- Hesperaloe funifera ( K.Koch ) Trel.
- Hesperaloe malacophylla Hochstätter & Mart. - Aval.
- Hesperaloe nocturna Gentry
- Hesperaloe parviflora ( Torr. ) J.M.Coult. Hesperaloe parviflora subsp. parviflora
- Hesperaloe parviflora subsp. bechtoldii Hochstätter