Selaginellaceae – the spike moss family

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Sarah Hanson

Introduction

Lycopodiophyta have an important position in the history of plant life. The group was once a very diverse clade, which is well-documented with fossil records, but now has only a small number of extant members. Their history is longer than any other group of vascular plants. Once fast-growing trees that could grow to 30 metres, whose remains are now in the form of coal, Lycopodiophyta are a sister clade to all other vascular plants including ferns and seed plants. They have been evolving independently of other vascular plants for over 400 million years and in that time have evolved several convergent features like leaves, wood, trees and seed-like structures, making them extremely important in the understanding of plant evolution. Continue reading →

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Dracaenaceae: Dragon’s Blood and the language of the birds …

Posted on March 6, 2013 by peter rooney

Dracaenaceae Salisb., Gen. Pl: 73 (1866), nom. cons.

The family Dracaenaceae has a complex, fascinating history, of great interest will be to see how it unfolds.  It is the family of Dragon Trees, of one, two or three genera and a hundred or more species, of mythical properties and misplaced relationships.  For most of this history it’s maintained an internal constancy, as Dracaena and Sansevieria, but there are several other tree-like, rosette-topped, spiky leaved, monocot genera with which it has either primitive or derived similarities and has been variously combined.  How then has it come to be thought of by some as part of the subfamily Nolinoideae, again placed in the worldwide family Asparagaceae?

D. cinnabari

Dracaena cinnabari Balf. f.
Socotra, Yemen
© Image courtesy of Eduardo Scepi.

D. cinnabari forest.

D. cinnabari, a forest of Dragon Trees.
© Image courtesy of Jan Vandorpe

 

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Lentibulariaceae (The Bladderwort Family)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Tom Cooper
Utricularia paulineae
Utricularia striata growing aquatically
Pinguicula pumila

Overview

Lentibulariaceae are herbaceous, terrestrial, epiphytic or aquatic carnivorous plants. The leaves can be alternate, scattered on stolons or whorled in rosettes, entire or divided, and sometimes heterophyllous (different shaped leaves on same plant). The inflorescences are terminal or lateral, racemose or simple, sometimes with paracladia present, though can often be reduced to a single flower. They can be braceate with prophylls present, and can sometimes be connate. The flowers are zygomorphic and bisexual; the calyx can be 2-4 or 5 partite. The corolla is sympetalous (fused) and usually spurred. The upper lip is either entire or 2-lobed, while the lower lip often has a distinct gibbous palate and can be entire or 2-5 lobed. Two stamens are present in the abaxial half of the flower. The ovary is superior, unilocular (single chambered) with two fused carpels. The fruit is usually a capsule (simple, dry fruit).

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Musaceae – GIANT HERBS not trees!

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Liew, P.S
Taiwan Banana mascot

Taiwan Banana mascot.
Picture by Liew

When we talk about plants and people, the “Banana family” or Musaceae is one of the prominent ones. Although it has a long history and prominent role in human and wildlife diet, the puzzle of the origin and evolutionary theory of the cultivated banana is still being unravelled (Jeridi et al. 2011) but there are believed to be two key species: M. acuminata and M. balbisiana. The nature of its large inflorescence and leaves makes it difficult to preserve as herbarium specimen. Therefore, taxonomists separate the study of Musaceae into wild and cultivated species. This blog post will focus mainly on wild banana taxonomy.

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A look into the Carnivorous world- Nepenthaceae

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Garance
Nepenthes bicalcarata

Picture 1 Nepenthes bicalcarata

“The pitchers of Nepenthes possesses extraordinary power of digestion” … “The fact that a plant should secrete, when properly excited, a fluid containing an acid and ferment, closely analogous to the digestive fluid of an animal, was certainly a remarkable discovery.” (Charles Darwin, Insectivorous Plants pg. 97).

Nepenthaceae Dum. famous within the carnivorous kingdom for its characteristic insect catching pitchers, is thought to only contain one genus Nepenthes L. Although some have split one species (Nepenthes pervillei) into another  genus Aneurosperma due to its distinct seed and floral morphology (Heywood et al. 2007). However, this taxonomy is rarely followed. Many Nepenthes species circa 87 sp are found in Borneo or Sumatra with the rest of the species having a Palaeotropical distribution (Clarke 1997).  There are an estimated 140species currently known. Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, Australia, Low Nutrient Environments, Madagascar, Palaeotropics, Students | 1 Comment

Camellia sinensis: A Blood Boiling and Tea Stained History

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Chris Reilly

Family, Genus and Species Limits

Borne in the leaf axil, a beautiful showy flower of Camellia sinensis.

Commonly known in the West as ‘Tea’, Camellia sinensis (L) O. Kuntze is an evergreen shrub assigned to the family Theaceae. The most recent circumscription of this family includes 3 sub-families: Theeae, Gordonieae and Stewartieae, which contain a total of 9 genera and circa. 195 species (Stevens, 2001-onwards). Some of the diagnostic features of the family include large and showy flowers which are actinomorphic, solitary and born in the axils of the leaves; leaves which are alternate and spirally or distichously arranged; and, simple leaves with toothed margins and no stipules (Heywood et al. 2007).

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Pandanus amaryllifolius – The only Pandanus with fragrant leaves

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Liew, P.S

P. amaryllifolius is one of the plants that is capable of evoking nostalgic memories of South-East Asian life solely by its scent.

Pandanaceae is a paleotropical monocot family that comprises 4 genera (ie. Pandanus, Freycinetia, Martellidendron and Sararanga). Pandanus is the largest genus with 8 subgenera and 700 species, follow by Freycinetia (200 species), Martellidendron (6 species) and Sararanga (2 species) (Buerki et al., 2012).

The distinct features of Pandanaceae are its marginal and midrib prickles on the leaves (Stone, 1978 and Steven, 2001). Pandanaceae could be a challenge to be distinguish in the field with Cyclanthaceae and Arecaceae because of their similar structure and habit. Nevertheless confusion with Cyclanthaceae, which is a sister group with Pandanceae (APG III, 2009) can be differentiated by the arrangement of leaves: Pandanaceae leaves are mostly arranged in 3-4 ranks whereas Cyclanthaceae are mostly in 2 ranks (Stevens, 2001). Pandanaceae can be differentiated from Arecaceae by their leaf development. Arecaceae  leaves are folded when young but will eventually split at the margin as they expand while Pandanaceae leaves remain entire. Continue reading →

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Ipomoea batatas – Sweet Potato or When is a potato not a potato?

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Irene Lucas
A crop of sweet potatoes grown at University of Reading

A crop of sweet potatoes grown at University of Reading

Many of you will be familiar with the knobbly, red-skinned, orange-fleshed, vegetable known as sweet potato but you might be surprised to learn that it is more closely related to the parasitic thread-like dodders than it is to our familiar white-fleshed potato.

Here you can see some of the sweet potato crop gathered in summer 2015.  There are two different varieties grown, one with orange flesh and one with yellow flesh.

Meet the family 

Ipomoea batatas is a member of the Convolvulaceae. Other plants you might know from this family are I. purpurea, or Morning Glory, which is commonly grown in British gardens as an annual climbing plant, and that bane of gardener’s lives, although it looks very pretty when growing in the wild, Field Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis. Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Americas, Asia, Australia, Crops, Species, Students | 2 Comments

 Cyperus papyrus L., post 2 of 2, taxonomy and distribution

Posted on January 4, 2013 by peter rooney

Cyperus papyrus is a tall and graceful plant.  It looks stunning in the Tropical Greenhouse with a tropical blue sky behind it, which, even in October, Reading obligingly provided, to prove the point.  It’s up to 5m tall, with almost globular flower heads which have a complex structure…

This is the second of two posts about Cyperus papyrus, it covers this intriguing plant’s taxonomy and distribution.  The first post discusses its immense value and fascinating uses, both old and new.

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Posted in Africa, Crops, Madagascar, Pond, Species, Students, Water Plants | 1 Comment

Cyperus papyrus L., post 1 of 2, value and uses

Posted on January 2, 2013 by peter rooney

The one thing that most people know about this plant is that it was the source of paper for  ancient Egyptians.  They started to use it for writing on circa 5000 years ago, and carried on up until the 8th or 9th century, when fibre materials replaced it as the medium of choice for literary Egyptians.

However, despite a contemporary enthusiasm in tropical Africa to make biofuel with this prolific species having gone up in smoke …  there’s still a lot more to this very interesting plant than just good looks …

This is the first of two posts about Cyperus papyrus, it covers this fascinating plant’s value and uses, both old and new.  In the second post, it’s described and intriguing questions of taxonomy and distribution are discussed.

Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Countries, Crops, Madagascar, Pond, Species, Water Plants | 4 Comments