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Rafflesiaceae
The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including ''Rafflesia arnoldii'', which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are endoparasites of vines in the genus ''Tetrastigma'' (Vitaceae) and lack stems, leaves, roots, and any photosynthetic tissue. They rely entirely on their host plants for both water and nutrients, and only then emerge as flowers from the roots or lower stems of the host plants. Description Flowers Rafflesiaceae flowers mimic rotting carcasses in scent, color, and texture to attract their pollinators, carrion flies. For this reason, some flowers of the family ''Rafflesia'' are nicknamed "corpse flowers". Most members of Rafflesiaceae possess a large, bowl-shaped floral chamber formed by a perianth tube and a diaphragm. This diaphragm is the opening for carrion fly pollinators and is surrounded by attractive sterile organs. Flowers are gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rafflesiaceae Sp VMH378
The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including ''Rafflesia arnoldii'', which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are endoparasites of vines in the genus ''Tetrastigma'' (Vitaceae) and lack stems, leaves, roots, and any photosynthetic tissue. They rely entirely on their host plants for both water and nutrients, and only then emerge as flowers from the roots or lower stems of the host plants. Description Flowers Rafflesiaceae flowers mimic rotting carcasses in scent, color, and texture to attract their pollinators, carrion flies. For this reason, some flowers of the family ''Rafflesia'' are nicknamed "corpse flowers". Most members of Rafflesiaceae possess a large, bowl-shaped floral chamber formed by a perianth tube and a diaphragm. This diaphragm is the opening for carrion fly pollinators and is surrounded by attractive sterile organs. Flowers are gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rafflesia
''Rafflesia'' () is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flowers in the world. Plants of the World Online lists up to 41 species from this genus, all of them are found throughout Southeast Asia. Western Europeans first learned about plants of this genus from French surgeon and naturalist Louis Deschamps when he was in Java between 1791 and 1794; but his notes and illustrations, seized by the British in 1803, were not available to western science until 1861. The first British person to see one was Joseph Arnold in 1818, in the Indonesia rainforest in Bengkulu, Sumatra, after a Malay servant working for him discovered a flower and pointed it out to him. The flower, and the genus, was later named after Stamford Raffles, the leader of the expedition and the founder of the British colony of Singapore. The f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhizanthes
''Rhizanthes'' is a genus of four species of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. They are without leaves, stems, roots, or photosynthetic tissue, and grow within the roots of a few species of ''Tetrastigma'' vines. The genus is limited to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. The flowers of ''Rhizanthes'' are very large, they vary from 14 to 43 cm in diameter. At least one species of ''Rhizanthes'', ''Rh. lowii'', is endothermic. Names The Latin name derives from the compound of the Ancient Greek words ῥίζα (pronounced ''rhíza''), meaning 'root', with the word ἄνθος ( ''anthos'') meaning 'flower'. 'Malay' vernacular names used for ''Rhizanthes zippelii'' according to Betty Molesworth Allen in 1967 were ''bunga pakma'' and ''bunga padma'', presumably, with the taxonomic changes, those names could actually refer to any species except ''Rh. zippelii''. The word ''bunga'' means flower; both names are shared by plants in the related genus ''Ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malpighiales
The Malpighiales comprise one of the largest orders of flowering plants, containing about 36 families and more than species, about 7.8% of the eudicots. The order is very diverse, containing plants as different as the willow, violet, poinsettia, manchineel, rafflesia and coca plant, and are hard to recognize except with molecular phylogenetic evidence. It is not part of any of the classification systems based only on plant morphology. Molecular clock calculations estimate the origin of stem group Malpighiales at around 100 million years ago ( Mya) and the origin of crown group Malpighiales at about 90 Mya. The Malpighiales are divided into 32 to 42 families, depending upon which clades in the order are given the taxonomic rank of family. In the APG III system, 35 families were recognized. Medusagynaceae, Quiinaceae, Peraceae, Malesherbiaceae, Turneraceae, Samydaceae, and Scyphostegiaceae were consolidated into other families. The largest family, by far, is the Euphorbiaceae, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rafflesia Arnoldii
''Rafflesia arnoldii'', the corpse flower or giant padma, is a species of flowering plant in the parasitic genus ''Rafflesia''. It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on Earth. It has a strong and unpleasant odor of decaying flesh. It is native to the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. Although there are some plants with larger flowering organs like the titan arum (''Amorphophallus titanum'') and talipot palm (''Corypha umbraculifera''), those are technically clusters of many flowers. ''Rafflesia arnoldii'' is one of the three national flowers in Indonesia, the other two being the white jasmine (''Jasminum sambac'') and moon orchid (''Phalaenopsis amabilis''). It was officially recognized as a national "rare flower" ( id, puspa langka) in Presidential Decree No. 4 in 1993. Taxonomy The first European to find ''Rafflesia'' was the ill-fated French explorer Louis Auguste Deschamps. He was a member of a French scientific expedition to Asia and the Pacific, deta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sapria
''Sapria'' is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. It grows within roots of ''Vitis'' and ''Tetrastigma''. The genus is limited to the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. The flowers of ''Sapria'' are about 20 cm in diameter, bright red with yellow or white dots, unisexual and dioecious. In contrast with the related genus ''Rafflesia ''Rafflesia'' () is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flowers i ...'' the flowers have 10 lobes. Species Four species are described. References *Griffith, Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 1: 216. 1844.''Sapria''in ''Flora of China'' 5: 271. 2003.''A rare root parasitic plant (''Sapria himalayana'' Griffith.) in Namdapha National Park, northeastern India''in ''Current Science'', Vol. 85, No. 12, 25 December 2003 External links ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pilostyles
''Pilostyles'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apodanthaceae. It includes about 11 species of very small, completely parasitic plants that live inside the stems of woody legumes. Plants of this genus are sometimes referred to as stemsuckers. The plants completely lack stems, roots, leaves, and chlorophyll. While not flowering, they do not resemble most plants, living entirely inside the host as " ..a mycelium-like endophyte formed by strands of parenchyma cells that are in close contact to the host vasculature". Their presence is only noticeable when the flowers emerge out of the stems of the host plant. ''Pilostyles'' is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. Male and female plants are not commonly known to inhabit the same host. Flowers are two or three millimeters wide and in some species each female flower can produce over 100 seeds, which are less than 1mm long.Armstrong, WSouthern California's Most Unusual Wildflower/ref> Species are found in seve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetrastigma
''Tetrastigma'' is a genus of plants in the grape family, Vitaceae. The plants are lianas that climb with tendrils and have palmately compound leaves. Plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants; female flowers are characterized by their four-lobed stigmas. The species are found in subtropical and tropical regions of Asia, Malaysia, and Australia, where they grow in primary rainforest, gallery forest and monsoon forest and moister woodland. Species of this genus are notable as being the sole hosts of parasitic plants in the family Rafflesiaceae, one of which, ''Rafflesia arnoldii'', produces the largest single flower in the world. ''Tetrastigma'' is the donor species for horizontal gene transfer to ''Sapria'' and ''Rafflesia'' due to multiple gene theft events. Within the Vitaceae, ''Tetrastigma'' has long been considered closely related to ''Cayratia'' and ''Cyphostemma'' and is now placed in the tribe Cayratieae. Fossil record A fossil seed fragment from the e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cytinus
''Cytinus'' is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. Species in this genus do not produce chlorophyll, but rely fully on its host plant. ''Cytinus'' usually parasitizes ''Cistus'' and ''Halimium'', two genera of plants in the family Cistaceae. It has also been found on ''Ptilostemon chamaepeuce''. Several species are found in the Mediterranean Region, South Africa, with a possibly undescribed species from Madagascar. Biology ''C. capensis'' and ''C. sanguineus'' are dioecious, while ''C. hypocistis'' is monoecious. Nickrent ''et al.'' 2004 ''C. hypocistis'' has been shown to infect mainly ''Halimium halimifolium'' and ''Cistus monspeliensis'' in Portugal. Systematics The genus ''Cytinus'' was previously included in the parasitic family Rafflesiaceae, but is now put into the family Cytinaceae (order Malvales), together with the genus ''Bdallophytum'' with four species. ''Cytinus ruber'' is no longer considered a separate species, but is now a subspecies of ''C. hypocistis' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are shrubs or trees, such as ''Hevea brasiliensis''. Some, such as ''Euphorbia canariensis'', are succulent and resemble cacti because of convergent evolution. This family has a cosmopolitan global distribution. The greatest diversity of species is in the tropics, however, the Euphorbiaceae also have many species in nontropical areas of all continents except Antarctica. Description The leaves are alternate, seldom opposite, with stipules. They are mainly simple, but where compound, are always palmate, never pinnate. Stipules may be reduced to hairs, glands, or spines, or in succulent species are sometimes absent. The plants can be monoecious or dioecious. The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cytinaceae
Cytinaceae is a family of parasitic flowering plants. It comprises two genera, ''Cytinus'' and ''Bdallophytum'', totalling ten species. These two genera were formerly placed in the family Rafflesiaceae, order Malpighiales. When they were separated into a new family, it was initially placed in Malpighiales, but it has since been recognised as belonging to order Malvales The Malvales are an order of flowering plants. As circumscribed by APG II-system, the order includes about 6000 species within 9 families. The order is placed in the eurosids II, which are part of the eudicots. The plants are mostly shrubs and .... References External linksParasitic Plant Connection: Cytinaceae Parasitic plants Malvales families {{Malvales-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bdallophytum
''Bdallophytum'' is a genus of parasitic flowering plants with five described species. It parasitizes on the roots of plants of the genus ''Bursera'', such as ''Bursera simaruba''. The genus is endemic to the Neotropics.Parasiticplants.siu.eduCytinaceae/ref> It was previously placed in ''Rafflesiaceae'', but is now placed in family Cytinaceae, together with the only other genus ''Cytinus''. Some ''Bdallophytum'' species were at one time considered to belong to this latter genus. ''Bdallophytum'' is dioecious. Name The genus name is probably derived from Ancient Greek ''bdell-'' "leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ..." and ''phyton'' "plant". It was later misspelled as ''Bdallophyton'' by Eichler, and this synonym is now also in common use.USDA GRINGenus ''Bdallo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
