Kunzea

Kunzea ambigua

Kunzea is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family ( Myrtaceae ). All about 42 species are originally from Australia, has a sort of natural occurrence in New Zealand.

  • 3.1 Notes and references

Description and ecology

Appearance and leaves

Kunzea species grow as evergreen shrubs or small trees that reach heights of growth from 0.3 to 4 meters. They contain essential oils.

The most species alternate, with a few species opposite ( see also epithet of Kunzea opposita ) arranged on the branches leaves are petiolate or sessile. The herbaceous or leathery, simple leaf blades are hairy or glabrous, glandular- dotted and smell aromatic. The leaf margins are smooth or serrated. There are no stipules present.

Inflorescences, flowers and pollination

The most pseudoendständigen, head-like inflorescences contain more or less sedentary flowers, rare flowers are stalked and are available individually or in bundles to second to third in the leaf axils. The bracts are sometimes enlarged and form a sheath ( involucre ). There are early sloping cover sheets available.

The relatively small, hermaphroditic flowers are radial symmetry and fünfzählig double perianth. The free, bald or hairy flower cup ( hypanthium ) is bell-shaped, mostly broadly cup-shaped, or spherical to ovoid. The free area of the flower cup usually dominates the upper end of the ovary far. The five herbaceous sepals are green, ovate to triangular, and at most as long as the petals. The five free, short spiked petals are flat, obovate to circular. The colors of the petals are range from white to yellow and pink to purple. The stamens are curved inwards in the bud that the anthers are below the scar. The many, more or less the same (20 to 100) stamens are arranged in one or more circles, inserted into a ring on the flower cups and protrude beyond the petals. The thread-like filaments with each other freely and not adherent to the petals. The dust bags are not all the same upright, have two parallel counters and open with longitudinal slots. It is a discus available. Usually two or three carpels are fused into a two-or dreikammerigen ovary. In apical placentation some hanging, anatrope ovules are arranged or it is centrally angle constant placentation with many anatropen ovules before. The stylus is much longer than the ovary. The kopfige or shield-shaped ( peltate ) Scar towers over the petals.

Pollination is by insects ( entomophily ) or birds ( Ornithophilie ).

Fruit and seeds

The fruit capsules are usually loculizidal, but they do not open up in some species. The calyx is the fruit still present. Only in Kunzea pomifera the capsule fruit is fleshy. The relatively small seeds contain no endosperm.

Dissemination

All about 42 species are originally from Australia, of course, a type also occurs in New Zealand. On the Australian continent are types in all states before, but most species in southern Western Australia. Several Kunzea species are neophytes in the fynbos region of South Africa.

System

The genus Kunzea in 1828 situated in Conspectus Regni Vegetabilis, p 175. The genus name Kunzea honors the German naturalist Gustav Kunze, professor of botany in Leipzig.

Synonyms for Kunzea Rchb. are: Pentagon Aster Klotzsch, Salisia Lindl, Stenospermum Sweet ex Heynh, Tillospermum handle ... .

The genus belongs to the tribe Kunzea Leptospermeae in the subfamily Myrtoideae within the family of Myrtaceae

There are about 42 species Kunzea:

  • Kunzea acicularis Toelken & G.F.Craig
  • Kunzea acuminata Toelken
  • Kunzea affinis S.Moore
  • Kunzea ambigua (Sm. ) Druce
  • Kunzea baxteri ( Klotzsch ) rain
  • Kunzea bracteolata Maiden & Betche
  • Kunzea calida F.Muell.
  • Kunzea cambagei Maiden & Betche
  • Kunzea capitata (Sm. ) Heynh.
  • Kunzea ciliata Toelken
  • Kunzea cincinnata Toelken
  • Kunzea clavata Toelken
  • Kunzea ericifolia (Sm. ) Heynh.
  • Kunzea ericoides ( A.Rich. ) Joy Thomps.
  • Kunzea eriocalyx F.Muell.
  • Kunzea flavescens C.T.White & W.D.Francis
  • Kunzea glabrescens Toelken
  • Kunzea graniticola Byrnes
  • Kunzea jucunda Diels & E.Pritz.
  • Kunzea micrantha Schauer
  • Kunzea micromera shower
  • Kunzea montana ( Diels ) Domin
  • Kunzea muelleri Benth.
  • Kunzea newbeyi Toelken person
  • Kunzea obovata Byrnes
  • Kunzea opposita F.Muell.
  • Kunzea parvifolia shower
  • Kunzea pauciflora shower
  • Kunzea pomifera F.Muell.
  • Kunzea praestans shower
  • Kunzea preissiana shower
  • Kunzea pulchella ( Lindl. ) A.S.George
  • Kunzea recurva shower
  • Kunzea × rosea ( Turcz. ) Govaerts
  • Kunzea rostrata Toelken
  • Kunzea rupestris Blakely
  • Kunzea similis Toelken
  • Kunzea sinclairii ( Kirk) W.Harris
  • Kunzea spathulata Toelken
  • Kunzea × squarrosa Turcz.
  • Kunzea strigosa Toelken & G.F.Craig
  • Kunzea sulphurea Tovey & P.Morris

There are probably hybrids between all species that occur together in an area. This complicates the determination and systematics.

Ovary (botany) Agricultural Research Service
492047
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