Loasa

Loasa vulcanica

Loasa is a plant genus of the family of flowers nettle plants ( Loasaceae ). It contains about 36 species, which are almost all located in Chile and Argentina.

Description

It is upright or rosette growing or climbing annual or perennial herbaceous plants, rarely dwarf shrubs, which are staffed with stinging hairs. The primary root is thin and forms a thickened tap root or a tuber. The leaves are arranged either all against or alternate only in the lower half and the upper, the leaf blades are then usually ovate and pinnate, occasionally bipinnate. Occasionally, however, the spreading are also broadly ovate to lobed nearly circular and nearly palmate.

The inflorescences are terminal and thyrsenähnlich or log Asia, rarely single flowers. Before hanging the most, even upright in a rosette growing species individual flowers are two frondose bracteoles.

The petals are usually white, yellow or red. The outer staminodes are fused and form a shed sheet ( nectar scale), there are three long flag -like white, red or yellow extensions on the outer side.

The fruit is a cylindrical capsule to approximately round and opens the basis of three to five tabs at the top of the fruit. The seeds are ovate, rarely large and round. The number of chromosomes is 2n = 12, 24, 26 and 36

Dissemination

The species are exclusively native to Chile and Argentina, with the exception of a type that can also be found on the Peruvian coast.

System

Loasa 1763 was first described by Michel Adanson and is classified in the subfamily Loasoideae, Tribe Loaseae, it is closely related to the Caiophora, Scyphanthus and Blumenbachia. The Loasa 1900 were divided by Ignatz Urban and Ernest Friedrich Gilg into several sections and series, but today are considered to be no longer tenable. It is assumed that the genus is paraphyletic, it comprises about 36 species, including:

• Loasa acanthifolia Lindl.
• Loasa nitida Lam.
• Loasa malesherbioides Phil
• Loasa vulcanica André
• Three-color Loase ( Loasa tricolor Lindl. )
• Trifoliate Loase ( Loasa triphylla Juss. )

Evidence

• Maximilian Weigend: Loasaceae. In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.): The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Volume 6: Flowering Plants, Dicotyledons: Celastrales, Oxalidales, Rosales, Cornales, Ericales. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 2004, ISBN 3-540-06512-1, pp. 248, doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-07257-8 ( limited preview on Google Book Search ).
• Maximilian Weigend: Familial and generic classification, online, accessed August 1, 2008

• Flowers nettle plants
• Loasaceae