''Jeffreycia'' is a
genus of
African flowering plants in the family
Asteraceae.
They are in the tribe
Vernonieae.
It is native to Tropical eastern Africa and also Sri Lanka. It is found in the countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Somalia and Tanzania.
Description
''Jeffreycia'' are small to moderate-sized, branching, often scrambling shrubs. They have woody stems, with narrow and solid
pith. The leaves are arranged alternate with
petioles (leaf stalks) distinct and short to elongated. The leaf blades are ovate to elliptic or panduriform (fiddle-shaped) usually with basal auricles (ear-shaped lobe). They are to about long and about wide. They have crenated (rounded teeth) or serrated margins and the
apices
The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to:
Arts and media Fictional entities
* Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe
* Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe
*Apex ...
(leaf-tips) are acute to scarcely acuminate (tapering gradually to a point) and rarely obtuse. The upper surface of the leaf is sparsely pilosulous (covered with soft, weak, thin and clearly separated hairs) or hispidulous (bearing long, erect, rigid hairs or bristles). The lower surface of the leaf, is sparsely pilosulous to tomentellous (dense covering of short, matted hairs), with many glandular dots. The leaf has 4–6 secondary veins on each side, with unusual somewhat meandering course, spreading at 45–60° angles. The flowers are terminal (at ends of branches), with branches alternate and usually ascending at 30° angles or less, usually with minute bracteoles (small
bracts), sometimes primary bracteoles are larger and foliiform (leaf shaped). The flower heads are crowded at the ends of longer branches, with distinct short
peduncles (flower stalks). The
involucral bract
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 of ...
s (leaves around the flower) are persistent, subimbricate (slightly overlapping) in about series of 4–5 or with differentiated long, linear-lanceolate basal bracts, except at the base. They are smooth outside and without median keel. The
receptacle
Receptacle may refer to:
Biology
* Receptacle (botany), a plant anatomical part
* Seminal receptacle, a sperm storage site in some insects
Electrical engineering
* Automobile auxiliary power outlet, formerly known as ''cigarette lighter recep ...
is scarcely convex, epaleate (lacking plates), epilose (without hairs), with proturberant (bulging) scars. The flowerhead has 5–40 florets. The
corollas are purplish, 5–11 mm long, with some glandular dots on the outside. They have few or no hairs below tips and a slender basal tube which is half as long as the corolla. The throat (of the flower) is half as long as the limb and about as long as the lobes. The lobes are strictly narrowly lanceolate (shaped like a
lance), with sides straight from base to apex and not recurving. They sometimes have stiff hairs at tip. The
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 ...
thecae
In biology, a theca (plural thecae) is a sheath or a covering.
Botany
In botany, the theca is related to plant's flower anatomy. The theca of an angiosperm consists of a pair of microsporangia that are adjacent to each other and share a comm ...
is without glands and calcarate at the base (spurred), with narrow tails. The endothecial (the lining of the cavity of an anther) cells are without obvious nodes. The apical appendages are narrowly lanceolate. The
style has a basal node and sweeping hairs with blunt tips, restricted to branches, often lacking for some distance above bases of branches. The
achenes (one-seeded indehiscent fruit) are 2–41 mm long, with 4 or 5 poorly differentiated angles, with or without glands or setulae, with scattered idioblasts (cells) on the surface set sometimes in vertical series. The inner cells of achene wall are distinct firm cell walls, containing small sub-quadrate raphids (a seam or ridge on the seeds). carpopodium stopper-shaped or somewhat turbinate and asymmetrical, with many series of sub-quadrate, thick-walled cells. The
pappus (tuft of hairs) is white, with inner series capillary (slender), often deciduous, 4.5–7.0 mm long and gradually narrowed to tips. They are somewhat flattened on outer surface and the outer series consists of short persistent scales, minute to 0.5 mm long.
Taxonomy
The genus name of ''Jeffreycia'' is in honour of
Charles Jeffrey (b. 1934), an English botanist at Kew Gardens with a focus on Chinese flora and also specialist in Asteraceae and
Cucurbitaceae. He was the author of the study of the ''Vernonieae'' of East Tropical Africa.
It was first described and published in
PhytoKeys Vol.39 on page 59 in 2014.
Known species
According to Kew;
The African Plant Database accepts 4 species;
''Jeffreycia amaniensis'' , ''Jeffreycia hildebrandtii'' , ''Jeffreycia usambarensis'' and ''Jeffreycia zanzibarensis'' .
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q21217748
Asteraceae genera
Vernonieae
Flora of East Tropical Africa
Flora of Sri Lanka
Plants described in 2014