Trixis inula Crantz

  • Authority

    Anderson, Christiane. 1972. A monograph of the Mexican and Central American species of Trixis (Compositae). Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 22: 1-68.

  • Family

    Asteraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Trixis inula Crantz

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants 0.5-3 m tall, erect, much branched. Glandular trichomes of the vegetative parts 50-140 µ. long; nonglandular hairs with (1-)2-4(-5) basal cells. Stems not winged, or rarely with wings less than 2 mm wide; young stems, young branches, and inflorescence glandular and strigose or glabrous; internodes 0.2-4 cm long. Leaves petiolate; petioles 1-5(-7) mm long, usually not winged; blades 2.4-16.5 cm long, (0.5-)0.8-5.5 cm wide, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate to elhptical, apiculate at the apex, attenuate or slightly truncate at the base, usually glabrous above and beneath but with glands and hairs scattered along the margin, or sometimes glandular and sparsely strigose or strigose above, and strigose to pilose or rarely villous and sparsely glandular beneath; margins usually denticulate, or entire, flat, or shghtly recurved; midrib and nerves prominent beneath; stomates on the lower surface only. Inflorescence usually a leafy corymbose panicle or a corymb; peduncles 0.1-2(-2.5) cm long, sparsely glandular and strigose to pilose or rarely sericeous, sometimes glabrous. Accessory bracts 3-5(-7), 2.5-17(-22) mm long, 0.5-7 mm wide, hnear to hnearlanceolate to lanceolate to elliptical, rarely ovate, apiculate at the apex, subsessile or rarely subpetiolate, usually glabrous on both surfaces but with glands and hairs scattered along the margins, or sometimes glandular and sparsely strigose to strigose on both surfaces; margins entire, flat; midrib usually not prominent beneath. Phyllaries (7-)8(-9), 8-13(-15) mm long, 1-2.5(-3) mm wide, linear or oblong with an acute apex, rarely subulate, convex, strigose or densely strigose on the distal portion of the adaxial surface, sparsely glandular or glandular and sparsely strigose to strigose, rarely glabrous, on the abaxial surface; midrib not prominent. Receptacle 1.5-2.5 mm wide, the hairs up to 1.5 mm long. Flowers (8-) 10-15. Coroha: tube of the outer flowers 5-9 mm long, 0.4-0.5 mm wide at the base, 0.9-1.1 mm wide at the mouth, glandular on the distal half; outer lip 4-7.5 mm long, 1.7-3.2 mm wide, glandular or sparsely glandular, bearing a few hairs below the teeth, spreading; lobes of the inner hp (3-)3.6-5.3 mm long, 0.4-0.5 mm wide at the base, glandular, bearing a few hairs near the apex; inner flowers similar but smaller: outer lip 3.2-5.6 mm long, 1.3-2.5 mm wide. Filaments 1.5-2.8 mm long. Anthers (5.2-)6-7.8 mm long: appendages (1.5-)2-2.6 mm long, thecae 2.3-3.6 mm long, tails 1.3-2.2 mm long. Style 6.5-9.5 mm long below the bifurcation, the branches 1.4-2.6 mm long. Achenes 4.5-9 mm long, 0.4-0.7 mm wide, covered with double hairs, these usually not mucilage releasing, and glandular trichomes 50-80 µ long, the beak (0.5-)0.7-2(-2.8) mm long; embryo 3.5-5.8 mm long, 0.4-0.7 mm wide below the cotyledons, the cotyledons 1.8- 3.3 mm long. Pappus 7-11 mm long, tawny.

  • Discussion

    Type. Same as type of Inula trixis L.

    Inula trixis L., Amoen. Acad. 5: 406. 1759. Type. Jamaica, Browne (LINN, holotype; MICH ! microfiche of holotype).

    Perdicium radiale L., Sp. PI. ed. 2. 1248. 1763. Type. Same as type of Inula trixis L.

    Solidago fruticosa Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8. Solidago no. 31. 1768. Type. Veracruz: Houstoun (BM, holotype; MICH ! NY ! photo of holotype).

    Perdicium laevigatum Berg., Kongl. Svenska Vetenskapsakad. Handl. 33: 238. pl. 7. 1772.

    Type. Panama: Portobelo, Pihl (SBT, holotype; MICH ! photo of holotype).

    Perdicium havanense H.B.K., Nov. Gen. Sp. 4: 155. 1820. Type. Cuba: near Havana, Humboldt & Bonpland (P, holotype).

    Tenorea berteri Colla, Hortus Ripulensis 137. 1824. Type. Colombia: Santa Marta, Bertero (TO, holotype, verified by Prof. Arturo Ceruti).

    Tenorea calyculata Bert, ex Colla, Hortus Ripulensis 137, pro syn. 1824.

    Trixis frutescens P. Br. ex Spreng., Syst. Veg. 3: 501. 1826. Type. Same as type of Inula trixis L.

    Trixis havanensis (H.B.K.) Spreng., Syst. Veg. 3: 501. 1826.

    Trixis laevigata (Berg.) Lag. ex Spreng., Syst. Veg. 3: 501. 1826.

    Prenanthes fruticosa Willd. ex Less., Linnaea 5: 33, pro syn. 1830.

    Trixis mexicana Moc. ex Less., Linnaea 5: 33, pro syn. 1830.

    Trixis corymbosa D. Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 16: 188. 1830. Type. "In Mexico," Sesse & Mocino (G-Del., holotype, verified by Dr. Rogers McVaugh).

    Perdicium corymbosiim Sesse & Moc. ex D. Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 16: 188 pro syn 1830.

    Trixis glabra D. Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 16: 297. 1830. Type. (Veracruz]: prope

    Laguna Verde, Schiede & Deppe (location of type unknown).

    Trixis frutescens P. Br. ex Spreng. var. obtusifolia Less., Linnaea 6: 411. 1831. Type. Same as type of Trixis glabra D. Don.

    Trixis frutescens P. Br. ex Spreng. var. glabrata Less., Syn. Gen. Comp. 414. 1832. Type. Same as type of Perdicium laevigatum Berg.

    Trixis frutescens P. Br. ex Spreng. var. latifolia Less., Syn. Gen. Comp. 414. 1832. Type. Unknown.

    Trixis frutescens P. Br. ex Spreng. ß angustifolia DC. in D C , Prodr 7: 69 1838 Type. Cuba: Havana, de la Varga (G-DC, lectotype; MICH ! microfiche of lectotype).

    Trixis ehrenbergii Kunze, Linnaea 16: 317. 1842. Type. Grown from seed sent by Ehrenberg from Mexico (LZ, destroyed).

    Trixis radialis (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 1: 370. 1891.

    Trixis radialis (L.) Kuntze a pubescens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 1: 370. 1891 Type. Venezuela: La Guayra-Caracas, Kuntze 1409 (NY ! holotype).

    Trixis radialis (L.) Kuntze fi subglabra Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 1: 370. 1891. Type. Unknown.

    Trixis deamii Rob., Proc. Amer. Acad. U.S. 45: 411. 1910. Type. Guatemala: Zacapa, 230 m, Deam6359 (GH! holotype; MICH! US I isotypes).

    Trixis adenolepis Blake, Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 22: 654. 1924. Type. Guatemala: Gualan, ca. 125 m, Deam 324 (US! holotype; GH! MICH! NY! isotypes).

    Trixis chiantlensis Blake, Brittonia 2: 359. 1937. Type. Guatemala: Huehuetenango: Chiantla, 2100 m, Skutch 1957 (GH! holotype; US! fragment and photo of holotype).

    This species is distinguished by its glabrous or glabrate herbage and the dense corymbose inflorescence. It is the only true weed of the northern species of Trixis. Other species disappear from severely disturbed habitats but T. inula is commonly collected on roadcuts and along borders of cultivated fields. Though it is the most widely distributed species it is remarkably uniform through most of its range except in southeastern Chiapas and Guatemala. Some collections from these areas have subulate, densely glandular phyllaries; others have densely pubescent peduncles and leaves. In some both conditions are present. These plants have been segregated as T. adenolepis and T. deamii. Apparently, though, these represent only combinations of extremes in variation of these characters in T. inula rather than separate varieties or even species. T. inula typically lacks wings but two collections from Guatemala, Holway 725 and Donnell-Smith 2415, include specimens with cauline wings up to 2 mm wide. The collection from Nayarit is probably a chance introduction; that such a weedy plant would be collected only once if it were well established is highly unlikely.

    The achenes of this species are covered with numerous large glandular trichomes and relatively few, modified double hairs which do not release mucilage when wetted. This is probably an adaptation for flowering during the rainy season as well as during the dry months. Exceptions are found in a few collections from Oaxaca and Guatemala in which the achenes bear typically mucilage-releasing double hairs.

    An unusual collection from Chiapas, Anderson & Anderson 5489, may possibly be a hybrid between T. inula and T. chiapensis. It differs from typical specimens of T. inula in that it has short winghke projections at the base of the leaves, very broad accessory bracts, and erect, tapered, long glandular trichomes.

    Trixis inula is the type species of the genus Trixis, which Patrick Browne pubhshed in 1756. Linnaeus bought Browne's herbarium in 1758, and the next year described Browne's species under the name of Inula trixis in a dissertation, Plantarum jamaicensium pugillus. In the second edition of Species Plantarum (1763) Linnaeus referred Browne's specimen to his genus Perdicium, and described it under the name Perdicium radiale, giving Browne's polynomial and Inula trixis as synonyms, and thus creating a superfluous name. This changing of the name is recorded on the sheet of the type specimen which bears, in Linnaeus' hand, the names Inula trixis, Perdicium radiale, and the note "Br. 212. t. 33. f. 1.," a reference to the page, plate, and figure in Browne's book (Savage, 1945). The page number is an error for 312. In 1766 Crantz published the name Trixis inula, which is the earliest legitimate name for Browne's plant when it is considered a species of the genus Trixis.

  • Distribution

    From the southeastern tip of Texas south throughout the coastal lowlands, and west along the border of the Central Plateau, into eastern Oaxaca, Chiapas, the Yucatan peninsula, throughout Central America to northern Colombia and northern Venezuela, throughout the West Indies, and one collection from Nayarit (Fig. 9); from sea level to 2160 m; common in sandy open areas, at roadsides, and in thickets of secondary growth, generally in regions of tropical deciduous forest; collected in flower and i

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