Gesneriaceae

Gesneria reticulata, from here.

Belongs within: Lamiales.

The Gesneriaceae are a mostly tropical family of flowering plants. Among the best-known members are the African violets Saintpaulia. Members of the subfamily Didymocarpoideae have seedlings in which only one of the two cotyledons develops normally whereas the other remains stunted.

Characters (from Wang, Pan et al.): Herbs, shrubs, or rarely trees. Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, whorled or basal, rosette forming; exstipulate; usually simple, rarely shallowly to deeply lobed, pinnately or rarely palmately veined. Inflorescences usually cymes, rarely racemes, axillary, often near apex and appearing terminal; usually pedunculate. Flowers perfect, zygomorphic, seldom actinomorphic. Calyx actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic; usually (4 or)5-divided. Corolla gamopetalous, zygomorphic, rarely actinomorphic; usually 2-lipped. Fertile stamens 2 or 4, then often didynamous, rarely 5, epipetalous; anthers free or coherent, thecae 2, parallel, divergent, or divaricate; staminodes 1-3 or absent. Disc ringlike to cupular, rarely absent. Ovary superior, half inferior, or inferior, 1-loculed; gynophore seldom present; placentas (1 or)2, parietal, rarely 2-loculed, placenta 1 per locule and axile; ovules numerous, anatropous. Style 1; stigmas 1 or 2. Fruit usually capsular, loculicidal, septicidal, or circumscissile, rarely a berry, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, fusiform to ellipsoid or ovoid, minute, sometimes with appendages at 1 or both ends, with or without endosperm; embryo straight, cotyledons equal or unequal after germination.

<==Gesneriaceae
    |--Coronanthera C06 [Coronantheroideae T00]
    |--Didymocarpoideae [Cyrtandroideae] T00
    |    |--Cyrtandromoea T00
    |    |--Titanotrichum T00
    |    |--Cyrtandra K03
    |    |    |--C. areolata K03
    |    |    `--C. clarkei P88
    |    `--Didymocarpus D07
    |         |--D. atrosanguinea P88
    |         |--D. hirtus P88
    |         |--D. pedicellata D07
    |         `--D. platypus P88
    `--Gesnerioideae T00
         |--Sanango T00
         `--Gesneria J87
              |--G. aspera J87
              |--G. bullata J87
              |--G. ekmanii J87
              |--G. fruticosa J87
              |--G. hypoclada J87
              |--G. reticulata J87
              `--G. viridiflora J87
                   |--G. v. ssp. viridiflora J87
                   `--G. v. ssp. acrochordonanthe J87

Gesneriaceae incertae sedis:
  Nematanthus hirsutus OP01
  Streptocarpus holstii OP01
  Cyrtandropsis YY22
  Negria MC94
  Drepanthus MC94
  Aeschynanthus speciosa P88
  Chirita caliginosa P88
  Monophyllea horsfieldii P88
  Rhabdothamnus Cunn. 1838 A61
    `--R. solandri Cunn. 1838 [incl. R. scabrosus Steud. 1841, Columnea scabrosa Sol. ex DC. 1845] A61
  Saintpaulia confusa MH98
  Besleria lutea J87
  Columnea J87
    |--C. domingensis [=Trichantha domingensis] J87
    `--C. tulae J87
  Rhytidophyllum J87
    |--R. auriculatum J87
    `--R. bicolor J87
  Rhynchoglossum obliquum SR07
  Gloxinia C06
  Achimenes C06

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A61] Allan, H. H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand vol. 1. Indigenous Tracheophyta: Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledones. R. E. Owen, Government Printer: Wellington (New Zealand).

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[D07] Dash, S. S. 2007. Useful plants of Kabi Sacred Grove, Sikkim. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49: 79–88.

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum—Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1–136.

[K03] Kulip, J. 2003. An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal and other useful plants of Muruts in Sabah, Malaysia. Telopea 10 (1): 81–98.

[MH98] Morikawa, H., A. Higaki, M. Nohno, M. Takahashi, M. Kamada, M. Nakata, G. Toyohara, Y. Okamura, K. Matsui, S. Kitani, K. Fujita, K. Irifune & N. Goshima. 1998. More than a 600-fold variation in nitrogen dioxide assimilation among 217 plant taxa. Plant, Cell and Environment 21: 180–190.

[MC94] Morrone, J. J., & J. M. Carpenter. 1994. In search of a method for cladistic biogeography: an empirical comparison of component analysis, Brooks parsimony analysis, and three-area statements. Cladistics 10: 99–153.

[OP01] Olmstead, R. G., C. W. dePamphilis, A. D. Wolfe, N. D. Young, W. J. Elisons & P. A. Reeves. 2001. Disintegration of the Scrophulariaceae. American Journal of Botany 88 (2): 348–361.

[P88] Polunin, I. 1988. Plants and Flowers of Malaysia. Times Editions: Singapore.

[SR07] Sankar, R. V., K. Ravikumar, N. M. Ganesh Babu & D. K. Ved. 2007. Botany of Anapady MPCA, Palghat district, Kerala with special emphasis on species of conservation concern. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49: 165–172.

[T00] Thorne, R. F. 2000. The classification and geography of the flowering plants: dicotyledons of the class Angiospermae (subclasses Magnoliidae, Ranunculidae, Caryophyllidae, Dilleniidae, Rosidae, Asteridae, and Lamiidae). The Botanical Review 66: 441–647.

[YY22] Yampolsky, C., & H. Yampolsky. 1922. Distribution of sex forms in the phanerogamic flora. Bibliotheca Genetica 3: 1–62.

Last updated: 13 September 2019.