''Forstera'' is a genus of small

perennial plant 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 ...

s in the

Stylidiaceae The family Stylidiaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It consists of five genera with over 240 species, most of which are endemic to Australia and New Zealand. Members of Stylidiaceae are typically grass-like herbs or small shrub ...

family named in honour of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

naturalists

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and natural history, naturalist of partially Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of ...

and his son,

Georg Forster Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (, 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold F ...

, who had previously described ''Forsteras sister genus, ''

Phyllachne ''Phyllachne'' is a genus of four cushion plant species in the family Stylidiaceae. Of the four species, two are endemic to New Zealand, while '' P. colensoi'' is also native to Tasmania and '' P. uliginosa'' is entirely endemic to sout ...

'' just five years earlier. It comprises five species that are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

with the exception of '' F. bellidifolia'', which is endemic to

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. The species in this genus resemble those in a

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

of the related genus '' Stylidium'' called '' Forsteropsis'', but they are more closely related to the genus ''Phyllachne''. Proposals to merge the two genera based on information from

cladistic analysis Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived chara ...

have emerged because of these genera's morphological similarities and evidence that they are

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

Description

The species in ''Forstera'' are generally erect or decumbent

perennials 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 widel ...

with small

imbricate Aestivation or estivation is the positional arrangement of the parts of a flower within a flower bud before it has opened. Aestivation is also sometimes referred to as praefoliation or prefoliation, but these terms may also mean vernation: the ar ...

leaves and pedicellate, actinomorphic flowers.Good, R. (1925)
On the geographical distribution of the Stylidiaceae
''New Phytologist'', 24(4): 225-240. ''Forstera'' and its closely allied sister genus ''

'' have often been regarded as the most

plesiomorphic In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, and ...

genera in their family. Characteristics that this genus shares with ''Phyllachne'' include apically fused thecae that form a single-celled curved

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

and the

epigynous In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the pistil which holds the ovule(s) and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the bas ...

nectaries. ''Forstera'' can be distinguished from ''Phyllachne'' by its long peduncle (absent in ''Phyllachne'') and the

cushion plant A cushion plant is a compact, low-growing, mat-forming plant that is found in alpine, subalpine, arctic, or subarctic environments around the world. The term "cushion" is usually applied to woody plants that grow as spreading mats, are limited in ...

habit of ''Phyllachne''.Laurent, N., Bremer, B., Bremer, K. (1998). Phylogeny and generic interrelationships of the Stylidiaceae (Asterales), with a possible extreme case of floral paedomorphosis. ''Systematic Botany'', 23(3): 289-304.

Botanical history

The genus ''Forstera'' was first named by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

Letter from Linnaeus to J.R. Forster, 1776
Accessed online: 15 June 2017. and described in 1780 by

in ''Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis''. Many sources erroneously list L.f. (

Carolus Linnaeus the Younger Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Carolus Linnaeus the Younger, Carl von Linné den yngre (Swedish language, Swedish; abbreviated Carl von Linné d. y.), or ''Linnaeus filius'' (Latin for ''Linnaeus the son''; abbreviated L.fil. (outdated) or L.f. (mo ...

's standard author abbreviation) as the author of the genus, but the

Australian Plant Name Index The Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) is an online database of all published names of Australian vascular plants. It covers all names, whether current names, synonyms or invalid names. It includes bibliographic and typification details, informati ...

(APNI) has the correct citation''Forstera'' G.Forst.

. Accessed online: 10 July 2017. The first species placed in the genus was '' F. sedifolia'', which would remain the only species in the genus for 72 years. The

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

botanist Sir

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

described three new species: '' F. bellidifolia'' in 1852 and '' F. bidwillii'' and '' F. tenella'' in 1853.Mildbraed, J. (1908). Stylidiaceae. In: Engler, A. ''Das Pflanzenreich: Regni vegetabilis conspectus''. IV. 278. Leipzig. There was an uncertainty among botanists whether these plants belonged in one genus or two. The first instance of such uncertainty began when

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

moved ''F. sedifolia'' and ''F. bellidifolia'' to ''Phyllachne'' in 1874. In 1889, Selmar Schönland reduced the genus itself to a

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign ...

of ''Phyllachne'' under the name ''Phyllachne'' sect. ''Forstera'' in Engler and

Prantl Prantl is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Florian Prantl, Austrian luger * Heribert Prantl (born 1953), German journalist and jurist * Karl Prantl (1923–2010), Austrian sculptor * Karl Anton Eugen Prantl (1849&n ...

's ''

Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien ''Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (1887–1915) by Adolf Engler (1844–1930) and Karl Anton Prantl is a complete revision of plant families down to generic level and often even further. As such it forms part of the Engler system of plant tax ...

''. The moves established what later taxonomists would come to realize: that these two genera are closely related. By

Johannes Mildbraed Gottfried Wilhelm Johannes Mildbraed (19 December 1879 – 24 December 1954) was a German botanist that specialized in mosses, ferns, and various spermatophytes. He is well known for authoring the most current monograph and taxonomic treatment of ...

's 1908 taxonomic

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

on the family in Engler's ''

Das Pflanzenreich Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on alpha taxonomy, plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families'' ...

'', all four species known at the time were placed back into ''Forstera''. The last species in this genus to be described was '' F. mackayii'' in 1935 by

Harry Allan Harry Howard Barton Allan (27 April 1882 – 29 October 1957) was a New Zealand teacher, botanist, scientific administrator, and writer. Despite never receiving a formal education in botany, he became an eminent scientist, publishing ove ...

, bringing the total to five species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4492001 Flora of New Zealand Asterales genera