Calystegia ''Calystegia'' (bindweed, false bindweed, or morning glory) is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the bindweed family Convolvulaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution in temperate and subtropical regions, but with half o ...

affinis'' is a critically endangered

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of climbing or creeping vine in the

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

family

Convolvulaceae Convolvulaceae (), commonly called the bindweeds or morning glories, is a family of about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species. These species are primarily herbaceous vines, but also include trees, shrubs and herbs. The tubers of several spec ...

. It is endemic to

Lord Howe Island Lord Howe Island (; formerly Lord Howe's Island) is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies directly east of mainland P ...

and

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...

. In 2003 only about 45 mature plants were known, with about 40 of those on Norfolk Island.Coyne, Peter. ''Norfolk Island's Fascinating Flora''. Petaurus Press, 2011, p. 61

Etymology

The genus name, ''

'' is derived from the Greek: kalux, "cup", and stegos, "a covering", meaning "a covering cup" and refers to the

bracteoles In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or o ...

enclosing the calyx. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

, ''affinis'', is Latin for 'neighbouring', which was possibly chosen by

Endlicher Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Pressburg, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botan ...

on the basis of his comment that the species was closely allied to ''

Calystegia marginata ''Calystegia marginata'' is a species of morning glory, found in eastern Australia and New Zealand. A hairless and vigorous perennial climbing plant, with twining stems. The habitat is moist gullies in sclerophyll forest and on rainforest margins ...

''.

Description

''Calystegia affinis'' is a thin-stemmed plant in the genus ''

'' which climbs by twining. It has sparse alternate, arrow-headed leaves about 6 cm x 5 cm. The flowers are axillary, solitary, pink with five cream longitudinal bands and are funnel-shaped. They have large persistent

enclosing the calyx which has five sepals and five petals. The fruit is a papery capsule which splits longitudinally into four valves. The plant is thought to reproduce both clonally and by seed.

Taxonomy

''Calystegia affinis'' was first described by

in 1833. In 1904,

Joseph Maiden Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...

renamed it ''Convolvulus affinis'', but this is considered an illegal name by the Commonwealth Heads of Australian Herbaria. The other synonyms (given above) are illegal names, misapplications or pro-parte misapplications, with the species concept having been refined by P.S. Green in 1994 in ''Flora of Australia''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5024761 affinis Flora of Lord Howe Island Flora of Norfolk Island