''Didymocarpus''
is a genus of flowering plants in the family
Gesneriaceae
Gesneriaceae, the gesneriad family, is a family of flowering plants consisting of about 152 genera and ca. 3,540 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World (almost all Didymocarpoideae) and the New World (most Gesnerioideae), with ...
and typical of the
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
Didymocarpeae. There are about 100 known species distributed in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
,
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
, southern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
,
Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...
,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
,
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
, and the
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...
, with one species extending up to northern
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
. Some members of the genus are known for their
medicinal properties, especially to cure diseases related to the
kidneys.
Description
The members of the genus are typically small
perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...
,
deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
herbs
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
with
annual flowering stems. Flowering shoots are produced from the basal
rootstock or condensed
rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
during the onset of rainy season which dies after producing the fruits. Leaves are opposite,
decussate
Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. .
Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named aft ...
and mostly unequal within pairs. The inflorescence is pair-flowered
cyme, typical of the
Gesneriad family, with few to many flowers. The
calyx
Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to:
Biology
* Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...
is often united for more than half of its length or rarely free to the base. The corolla is tubular, widening towards the mouth with a bilabiate limbs. The flowers are devoid of nectar are subtended by brightly colored
bracteoles. Floral color can be hues of reds, oranges, yellows, and violet often with stripes on the lobes. The flower has two
stamens with slender filaments and cohering anthers. The
ovary
The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...
is cylindrical with often with stipe and an entirely capitate stigma. Fruit capsules are straight, orthocarpic, bivalved, and
dehisce loculicidally.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Didymocarpus'' was described by
Nathaniel Wallich
Nathaniel Wolff Wallich FRS FRSE (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the Danish East India Company and the British ...
in 1819 based on specimens he received from Nepal. Due to lack of a clear definition of the generic boundaries, more than 180 species and 450 names were affiliated to this genus over the time. These included many morphologically distinct species from Madagascar, Western ghats of India and Southeast Asia. The genus was remodeled and redefined by Weber and Burt in 1998 with about 80 species. Recently, many new species were described from India, China and Thailand and the genus now comprises about 100 species.
Species
The
Catalogue of Life
The Catalogue of Life is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxonomic Info ...
lists:
* ''
Didymocarpus acuminatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus adenocalyx''
* ''
Didymocarpus adenocarpus''
* ''
Didymocarpus albicalyx''
* ''
Didymocarpus andersonii''
* ''
Didymocarpus antirrhinoides''
* ''
Didymocarpus aromaticus''
* ''
Didymocarpus aurantiacus''
* ''
Didymocarpus aureoglandulosus''
* ''
Didymocarpus bancanus''
* ''
Didymocarpus barbinervius''
* ''
Didymocarpus bhutanicus''
* ''
Didymocarpus bicolor''
* ''
Didymocarpus biserratus''
* ''
Didymocarpus bracteatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus burkei''
* ''
Didymocarpus cinereus''
* ''
Didymocarpus citrinus''
* ''
Didymocarpus corchorifolius''
* ''
Didymocarpus cordatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus cortusifolius''
* ''
Didymocarpus curvicapsa''
* ''
Didymocarpus denticulatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus dongrakensis''
* ''
Didymocarpus elatior''
* ''
Didymocarpus epithemoides''
* ''
Didymocarpus gageanus''
* ''
Didymocarpus geesinkianus''
* ''
Didymocarpus glandulosus''
* ''
Didymocarpus graciliflorus''
* ''
Didymocarpus grandidentatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus heucherifolius''
* ''
Didymocarpus hookeri''
* ''
Didymocarpus insulsus''
* ''
Didymocarpus kerrii''
* ''
Didymocarpus labiatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus leiboensis''
* ''
Didymocarpus lineicapsa''
* ''
Didymocarpus macrophyllus''
* ''
Didymocarpus margaritae''
* ''
Didymocarpus medogensis''
* ''
Didymocarpus megaphyllus''
* ''
Didymocarpus mengtze''
* ''
Didymocarpus mollis''
* ''
Didymocarpus mortonii''
* ''
Didymocarpus nanophyton''
* ''
Didymocarpus newmannii''
* ''
Didymocarpus nigrescens''
* ''
Didymocarpus oblongus''
* ''
Didymocarpus ovatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus parryorum''
* ''
Didymocarpus paucinervius''
* ''
Didymocarpus pedicellatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus perakensis''
* ''
Didymocarpus platycalyx''
* ''
Didymocarpus podocarpus''
* ''
Didymocarpus poilanei''
* ''
Didymocarpus praeteritus''
* ''
Didymocarpus primulifolius''
* ''
Didymocarpus pseudomengtze''
* ''
Didymocarpus pteronema''
* ''
Didymocarpus pulcher''
* ''
Didymocarpus punduanus''
* ''
Didymocarpus purpureobracteatus''
* ''
Didymocarpus purpureopictus''
* ''
Didymocarpus purpureus''
* ''
Didymocarpus reniformis''
* ''
Didymocarpus robustus''
* ''
Didymocarpus rufipes''
* ''
Didymocarpus salviiflorus''
* ''
Didymocarpus silvarum''
* ''
Didymocarpus sinoprimulinus''
* ''
Didymocarpus sinoindicus''
* ''
Didymocarpus stenanthos''
* ''
Didymocarpus stenocarpus''
* ''
Didymocarpus subpalmatinervis''
* ''
Didymocarpus sulphureus''
* ''
Didymocarpus triplotrichus''
* ''
Didymocarpus tristis''
* ''
Didymocarpus wattianus''
* ''
Didymocarpus wengeri''
* ''
Didymocarpus venosus''
* ''
Didymocarpus villosus''
* ''
Didymocarpus violaceus''
* ''
Didymocarpus yuenlingensis''
* ''
Didymocarpus yunnanensis''
* ''
Didymocarpus zhenkangensis''
* ''
Didymocarpus zhufengensis''
References
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q550156
Flora of Indo-China
Flora of Malesia
Gesneriaceae genera
Didymocarpoideae