''Rhodochiton'' is a genus of flowering plants within the family Plantaginaceae, native to southern Mexico and neighbouring

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. They climb by means of twining leaf stalks. One of the three species, '' Rhodochiton atrosanguineus'', the purple bell vine, is grown as an ornamental plant. All three species are sometimes included in ''

Lophospermum ''Lophospermum'' is a genus of herbaceous perennial climbers or scramblers, native to mountainous regions of Mexico and Guatemala. Those that climb use twining leaf stalks. Their flowers are tubular, in shades of red, violet and purple, the large ...

''.

Description

''Rhodochiton'' species are

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennials. They have long climbing or sprawling stems, branching and becoming woody at the base with age. They cling by means of twining leaf stalks ( petioles). Their leaves are more or less heart-shaped, with pointed ends. The solitary flowers are carried on relatively long stalks ( peduncles) that are pendant, causing the flowers to hang downwards. The sepals, usually tinted rose or purple, are joined at the base and together form an expanded bell shape around the flower. The five

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are joined at the base to form a tube, light purple at the base and dark purple towards the tips. The free ends of the petals are either all bent backwards (''R. atrosanguineus'') or differentiated into two groups (the other two species): the upper two being bent backwards and the lower two facing forwards. There are four stamens, either all more or less the same length or in two pairs of different lengths. The fifth stamen is sterile and rudimentary. After fertilization a globe shaped capsule forms.

Taxonomy

Wayne J. Elisens Wayne may refer to: People with the given name and surname * Wayne (given name) * Wayne (surname) Geographical Places with name ''Wayne'' may take their name from a person with that surname; the most famous such person was Gen. "Mad" Anth ...

has outlined the somewhat confused taxonomic history of the genus name ''Rhodochiton''. In 1829, Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini sent seeds and a description to individuals and botanical gardens under the name "''Rhodochiton volubile''"; however this name was not published so no new genus name was established. In 1832, Zuccarini published the name ''Lophospermum atrosanguineum'' for the same species, writing that "I held it at first to be new genus and sent the seeds obtained in the summer of 1829 to several gardens under the name ''Rhodochiton volubile''. The figure in the Botanical Register f ''Lophospermum erubescens'' D.Don">Lophospermum_erubescens.html" ;"title="f ''Lophospermum erubescens">f ''Lophospermum erubescens'' D.Donhas convinced me of the identity of the genus" (i.e. that it was ''Lophospermum'' rather than a new genus). Not knowing of Zuccharini's change of name, in 1834 Christoph Friedrich Otto and Albert Gottfried Dietrich published and illustrated ''Rhodochiton volubilis''. This is taken as the date for the publication of the generic name. The genus is placed in the tribe Antirrhineae; within this tribe, it is closely related to ''Lophospermum'', ''

Maurandya ''Maurandya'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Mexico and the south west United States (from California to central Texas). They sprawl or climb by means of twining leaf stalks. One of the four species, ''Mau ...

'' (including ''Maurandella'') and ''

Mabrya ''Mabrya'' is a genus of flowering plants in the plantain family, Plantaginaceae. It consists of herbaceous perennials with brittle upright or drooping stems, found in dry areas of Mexico and the southern United States. Description Species of ' ...

''. It has been included in ''Lophospermum'' as section ''Rhodochiton''.

Phylogeny

A number of molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that subtribe Maurandyinae, defined by Elisens to consist of the five North American genera ''Holmgrenanthe'', ''Lophospermum'', ''Mabrya'', ''Maurandya'' and ''Rhodochiton'', forms a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group, which is related to the Old World genera '' Cymbalaria'' and ''

Asarina ''Asarina'' is a flowering plant genus of only one species, ''Asarina procumbens Mill.'' Search for "Asarina", the trailing snapdragon, which is native to France and Spain and introduced in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. Originally ...

''. Gehebrehiwet et al. suggested that the Maurandyinae could be expanded to include ''Cymbalaria'' and ''Asarina''. Vargas et al. presented the following cladogram in 2013, in which ''Rhodochiton'' is sister to the combination of ''Lophospermum'' and ''Mabrya'', so that including it in ''Lophospermum'' would make the latter

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 ...

. Vargas et al. concluded that the Antirrhineae evolved in the Old World and subsequently colonized North America more than once, probably in the Miocene epoch (). One such colonization led to the evolution of the Maurandyinae (in Elisen's sense).

Species

There are three species: *'' Rhodochiton atrosanguineus'' (Zucc.) Rothm. (syn. ''R. volubilis'') *'' Rhodochiton hintonii'' (Elisens) D.A.Sutton *'' Rhodochiton nubicola'' (Elisens) D.A.Sutton As noted above, Elisens places all three in ''Lophospermum'' section ''Rhodochiton''.

Distribution and habitat

The three species of ''Rhodochiton'' have very local distributions: in the

Sierra Madre del Sur The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca. Geography The Sierra Madre del Sur joins with the Eje Volcánico Transv ...

mountains, Mexico; northern Oaxaca, Mexico; and

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

, Mexico and neighbouring Guatemala. All grow in montane

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

s, at altitudes of between . Elisens described their habitats as "relatively inaccessible".

Cultivation

''Rhodochiton atrosanguineus'' was in cultivation before 1828, when seeds were given to Zuccarini by Baron Karwinski. In 1836,

Joseph Paxton Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

included it in a "select list of ornamental creepers". In frost-free areas it is perennial; in areas prone to winter frosts it can either be grown under glass as a perennial or outside as an annual, propagated from seed. In such conditions, it reaches a height of about .

Notes

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3622168 Plantaginaceae genera Flora of Mexico Plantaginaceae Flora of Guatemala Taxa named by Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini