Carlowrightia
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Authority
Daniel, Thomas F. 1983. Carloivrightia (Acanthaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 34: 1-116. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Acanthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type species. Carlowrightia linearifolia (Torrey) A. Gray (Schaueria linearifolia Torrey), lectotype species.
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Synonyms
Croftia King & Prain, Carlowrightia parvifolia Brandegee, Schaueria parvifolia Torr.
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Description
Genus Description - Erect to spreading or decumbent, suffrutescent perennial herbs or shrubs to 1 (-2) m high, arising from a stout, often tortuous, woody caudex or woody rhizome. Numerous woody or fleshy roots originating from the caudex. Older stems woody, often with warty, irregularly fissured or exfoliating bark, gray-brown or whitish, pubescent or glabrate. Younger stems green (sometimes tinged with red), terete to quadrate to bisulcate in cross section, the surfaces smooth to multistriate, variably pubescent with eglandular and/or glandular trichomes (rarely glabrous). Leaves opposite (rarely subopposite in C. linearifolia), sessile or petiolate; petioles canaliculate on the adaxial surface, detaching (0.l-)0.5-3.0 mm from the base, leaving petiolar stubs at the nodes; laminas often tinged with red, ranging in shape from linear to orbicular, attenuate to cordate, often asymmetric at the base, acuminate to rounded at the apex; margins entire (rarely undulate), flat or revolute. Inflorescence consisting of axillary clusters or, more commonly, spicate to paniculate thyrses. Flowers borne in variably reduced dichasia (often reduced to a single flower) in the axils of leaves or bracts, with each flower subtended by 2 identical bractlets. Receptacle 0.3-1.0 mm long. Calyx 5-parted, the lobes identical in form, longer than the tube. Corolla subactinomorphic, bilabiate, or pseudopapilionaceous, white to cream to rose-purple to blue, usually with yellow, maroon, or purple markings on the upper lip (absent in C. albiflora)-, petals 5, fused for part of their length; tube narrow, scarcely ampliate, shorter than the limb, usually pubescent within near the apex; limb appearing 4-parted, the upper lip spatulate, comprising 2 fused petal lobes, usually emarginate at the apex, the lower lip consisting of 2 similar, oblanceolate-elliptic, lateral petal lobes and a lower-central lobe which is either similar in form to the lateral lobes or conduplicate-keeled, enclosing the stamens and the terminal portion of the style during anthesis. Stamens 2; filaments emerging from the corolla near the junction of the corolla tube and the lower lip, one on either side of the lower-central petal lobe; anthers bithecous, the thecae maroon (turning black) or yellowish, parallel or subsagittate, subequally inserted on the filament, lacking any basal appendages; pollen spherical to prolate, tricolporate, pseudocolpate with 6 pseudocolpi (2 in each mesocolpium), the colpi and/or the pseudocolpi rarely fusing at or near the poles, amb subtriangular. Disc cuplike, the edge somewhat undulate. Ovary usually partially sunken into the disc, containing 4 ovules; style filiform, glabrous or partially pubescent; stigma bilobed. Capsule green turning brown when mature, stipitate, the head nearly spherical to laterally flattened, circular to ovate-elliptic in outline, terminated by a short beak, glabrous or pubescent. Seeds 4 or fewer per capsule, white turning brown mottled with black, or usually entirely black when mature, borne on hooklike retinacula, flat to concavoconvex, obliquely notched at the base, cordate in outline; testa smooth to papillose to tuberculate; margin entire to crenulate to dentate, the teeth usually with retrorse barbs.
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Distribution
Warm, temperate deserts and arid to semi-arid tropical regions with a center of diversification in Mexico but ranging from the southwestern United States to northern Costa Rica.
Mexico North America| Costa Rica South America| United States of America North America|