Paralepistemon
Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication:
PARALEPISTEMON Lejoly & Lisowski, Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique 56: 196. 1986.
Tribe:
Ipomoeeae
Type Species:
Paralepistemon shirensis (Oliv.) Lejoly & Lisowski
Habit:
Liana.
Leaves:
Simple, petiolate; blade entire, ovate, base cordate
Inflorescences:
Axillary, paniculate or umbelliform; bracts present, deciduous or persistent.
Flowers:
Sepals 5, free, subequal, obovate, papery, accrescent in fruit. Corolla funnelform, base tubular, at apex of tube with 5 triangular scales, limb 5-lobed. Stamens included, unequal, inserted on scales; filaments glabrous, thread-like above insertion; anthers basifixed, lanceolate or subsagittate, apex acute. Pistil included; disc annular, 5-lobed; ovary 2-celled; style filiform, simple, glabrous, the base persisting in fruit as a beak; stigma biglobose.
Pollen:
Sepals 5, free, subequal, obovate, papery, accrescent in fruit. Corolla funnelform, base tubular, at apex of tube with 5 triangular scales, limb 5-lobed. Stamens included, unequal, inserted on scales; filaments glabrous, thread-like above insertion; anthers basifixed, lanceolate or subsagittate, apex acute. Pistil included; disc annular, 5-lobed; ovary 2-celled; style filiform, simple, glabrous, the base persisting in fruit as a beak; stigma biglobose.
Fruits:
Indehiscent, ± woody, apex shortly beaked, ± enclosed in accrescent calyx.
Seeds:
1 per fruit, subglobose-triangular.
Distribution:
Africa. map
Countries:
Angola
Malawi
Mozambique
South Africa
Zambia
Zaire
Zimbabwe
Number of Species:
2
References:
Lejoly, J. & S. Lisowski. 1986. Paralepistemon, nouveau genre de Convolvulaceae. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique 56: 196. 1986.
Gonçalves, M.L. 1987. Convolvulaceae, fam. 117 In E. Launert (ed.), Flora Zambesiaca 8(1): 127–129.
Stefanovic, S., L. Krueger, R.G. Olmstead. 2002. Monophyly of the Convolvulaceae and circumscription of their major lineages based on DNA sequences of multiple chloroplast loci. Amer. J. Bot. 89(9): 1510–1522.
Contributors:
Segregated from Turbina and Ipomoea on morphological grounds by the presence of 5 enlarged scales within the corolla tube, on which the staminal filments are inserted. Molecular data have Paralepistemon and Turbina nested within Ipomoea.