Petermannia

Petermannia cirrosa is the only plant of the family of Petermanniaceae in the order of the lily -like ( Liliales ). The liana plant is found only in a small area east of Australia.

Description

Petermannia cirrosa is a perennial plant, reaching a height of up to 6 meters. The aerial parts grow out of schuppenblättrigen rhizomes. It is a vine, climbing by means of a terminal leaf tendrils, which are constantly compared by subsequent growth of the stem axis from the axil of leaf and reach a length of 5 to 15 centimeters. The woody stems are covered with spines. The plant contains in all parts of crystal sand.

The alternate, petiolate to nearly sedentary leaves are smooth, shiny, simple, entire and lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, tapering to a point and have a length of 3.5 to 10 and a width of 1 to 4 centimeters. The petioles are 3-5 mm long and thick.

The small flowers are 5 to 10 cm long panicles, flower stems are weak. The perianth consists of six free and nearly equal, 5-7 mm long, white or reddish- green and recurved bloom cladding together in two leaf circles. The six stamens are straight up and arranged in two circles, the pollen grains are distributed individually, are 43 to 47 microns long, obovate and sulcat. There is ever a stylus and a scar, the latter is thickened and wet. As pollinators act hoverflies.

The ovary is inferior, the fruit is a round, fleshy, smooth and bright red berry maturity with a diameter of 10 to 15 millimeters and contains fifteen to one hundred dark brown seeds. The chromosome number is 2n = 10

Dissemination

Petermannia cirrosa is endemic in cooler rain forests on the central east coast of Australia, in the border region of Queensland and New South Wales to the north of Hastings Range, where it occurs under subtropical to tropical conditions. It is rare.

System

The Petermanniaceae family is the sister taxon to a clade of alstroemeria plants, Luzuriagaceae and crocus plants, older studies they had understood as part of the Timeless plants, biting wind plants or Philesiaceae.

Paleobotany

1994 by John G. Conran based around a 8 x 5 inches firstdescribed measured leaf fossil from the upper Eocene Petermanniopsis angleseaënsis and provisionally detected as a sister taxon to the relationship of the Petermannia.

Evidence

• Peter F. Stevens: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, Version 7, May 2006, accessed March 1, 2008, Online
• L. Watson, MJ Dallwitz: The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval, 1992 et seq access. March 1, 2008 online.
• GJ Harden. Petermannia cirrosa F.Muell, in: New South Wales Flora Online Access: 1 March 2008 in Online