Stylidium uliginosum

Stylidium uliginosum is a plant of the genus shot plants ( Stylidium ) within the Stylidiaceae. It is one of the few species of the genus, which is also found outside Australia. Their range includes not only Queensland in northern Australia and North Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, southern China and Sri Lanka.

Like all species of the genus, it produces digestive enzymes into the existing below the flower trichomes and is therefore assigned to the carnivorous plants.

Features

Stylidium uliginosum is an annual herbaceous plant, reaching the heights of growth of about 5 to 15 centimeters. It has a small basal rosette of leaves and one or more glandular trichomes occupied by flower stems. The leaves are in whorls, are hairless and have a length of 4 to 7 and a width of 3 to 3.5 millimeters. They are obovate to almost round, so pointedly at the base and rounded at the tip.

The flowers are in terminal cymoiden paniculate inflorescences. The individual flowers sit on the flower stalk and reach a length of about 7 mm. The few, stalked, white flowers are small and zygomorphic. There are five bloom tepals present, the bottom two are elongated and fused to form a two-lobed lip, and accordingly many other floral organs. From the center of the flower rises above the column, which is bent in a tensioned state behind the bloom. Like all plants, they shot has developed an unusual mechanism for transfer of their pollen on pollinators, by feeding on the pollinators " strikes " with her gynostemium, a floral organ that arises from the convergence of stamen and pistil.

Documents

• M.D. Dassanayake: A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Vol 11: Aizoaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Eriocaulaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Goodeniaceae, Malvaceae, Myristicaceae, Orobanchaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Polygonaceae, Simaroubaceae, Stylidiaceae, Surianaceae. Balkema, Rotterdam, 1997.