Schwartzia (plant)

''Schwartzia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Marcgraviaceae. It is found in tropical parts of South America, mainly within the rainforest. It has greenish, white, reddish or red coloured flowers.

Description

They are sprawling shrubs, lianas, and sometimes small trees.Klaus Kubitzk
The leaves are spirally arranged, sessile (without a stalk) or petiolate (having a leaf stalk). They are coriaceous (leathery or stiff and tough), It has inflorescences which are short racemes with between 8-60 flowers, (though ''Schwartzia brasiliensis'' has long racemes of between 60-300 flowers).
They have straight, rarely geniculate (bent at a sharp angle), slender or stout, and elongated pedicels (flower stalks), which are between , depending on the species.
The nectaries are adnate (grown from or closely fused to an organ) to the lower third of the pedicel, mostly stipitate (stalked or borne on a stipe), cup-like, sac-like or boat shaped.
The flowers have 5 sepals and 5 petals, which are connate (or fused to another organ) and greenish, white, reddish or red in colour shades. The 5 imbricated (or tiled, overlapping) sepals are generally circular in shape. They form a quincunx and are coriaceous (leathery, stiff and tough). The 5 petals are free to variously connate, imbricate in bud and strongly reflexed (bent) at anthesis (after flowering).
It has 12 - 85 stamens, with the filaments (stamen stalks) mostly free or the outer whorl basally adnate (fused together) to the corolla, linear, flattened or somewhat triangular.
The anthers are approximately sagittate (arrowhead-shaped), or heart-shaped. The thecae are elongated. The ovary has 3 or 5 fused carpels, or seed chambers and few to numerous ovules per locule or chamber. The stigma is smooth or slightly capitate (like the head of a pin) or radiate.

After flowering it produces a leathery looking, fruit or seed caspule, which is almost globose (spherical) or berry-like (when immature). When ripe, they are often red or orange in color or just suffused with red. The fruits are sometimes also referred to as 'berries'. Inside the capule, the seeds are reniform (kidney-shaped) to hemispheric. The testa (seed coat) is reticulate (net-like) and red-black or glossy, shiny black.

Ecology

The flowers of the various ''Schwartzia'' species are visited by bees, wasps, ants and also, butterflies. However, the construction of the inflorescences with the large distances between the flowers and the nectaries excludes pollination by insects, since even the largest insects do not touch the flower organs when harvesting the nectaries. Therefore, only birds, bats and other small mammals can be considered effective pollinators.
Among birds, only perched birds such as the sugarbird (''Promerops'') are considered more suitable for pollination rather than hummingbirds. From Brazil, however, pollination of ''Schwartzia adamantium'' by the swallow-tailed hummingbird ('' Eupetomena macroura'') is documented.

Taxonomy

The genus name of ''Schwartzia'' is in honour of Olof Swartz (1760–1818), a Swedish botanist and taxonomist. He is best known for his taxonomic work and studies into pteridophytes.
It was first described and published in Fl. Flumin. Vol.5 on page 221 in 1829.

''Schwartzia glabra'' was the only species discussed there and thus became the type species. However, the same species was validly described as early as 1824 under the name ''Norantea brasiliensis'' by the Swiss botanist Jacques Denys Choisy and is therefore now called ''Schwartzia brasiliensis''.

''Schwartzia'' was treated as part of a broad genus of ''Norantea'' until the mid-1990s. The species of today's genera ''Marcgraviastrum'', ''Pseudosarcopera'' and ''Sarcopera'' were also counted within ''Norantea''. Beginning with the unpublished dissertation by the American botanist Hollis G. Bedell from 1985, in which a division of the genus ''Norantea'' was proposed, a classification concept with several smaller genera has now prevailed. ''Schwartzia'' includes the former subgenus of ''Cochliophyllum'' and partially the subgenus ''Byrsophyllum'' of the genus ''Norantea''. In contrast to Norantea, Schwartzia has relatively short-stalked or sessile nectaries on the lower to middle part of the relatively long flower stalks.

A phylogenetic study in 2002, was based on three regions of the plastid genome, has now confirmed that ''Norantea'' is not monophyletic in the old, broad sense. In this work, ''Schwartzia costaricensis'', the only examined representative of ''Schwartzia'', was the 'sister' taxon to ''Ruyschia phylladenia'', the only examined representative of ''Ruyschia'', with good statistical certainty.

Known species

According to Kew and Plants of the World Online:
*''Schwartzia adamantium''
*'' Schwartzia andina''
*'' Schwartzia antioquensis''
*'' Schwartzia brasiliensis''
*'' Schwartzia brenesii''
*'' Schwartzia chocoensis''
*'' Schwartzia costaricensis''
*'' Schwartzia diaz-piedrahitae''
*'' Schwartzia geniculatiflora''
*'' Schwartzia jimenezii''
*'' Schwartzia jucuensis''
*'' Schwartzia lozaniana''
*'' Schwartzia magnifica''
*'' Schwartzia parrae''
*'' Schwartzia petersonii''
*'' Schwartzia pterosara''
*'' Schwartzia renvoizei''
*'' Schwartzia spiciflora''
*'' Schwartzia tarrazuensis''
*'' Schwartzia weddelliana''

''Schwartzia diazpiedrahitae'' from western Colombia and Ecuador, which was only described in 2001, was then transferred to the genus ''Pseudosarcopera'' as ''Pseudosarcopera diaz-piedrahitae'', but when that genus was declared a synonym of '' Sarcopera'' it was transferred back to ''Schwartzia diazpiedrahitae'' .Bernal, R., G. Galeano, A. Rodríguez, H. Sarmiento y M. Gutiérrez. 2017. Nombres Comunes de las Plantas de Colombia. http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombrescomunes

Distribution

Its native range is in Tropical America. It is found within Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Leeward Islands, Panamá, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and the Windward Islands.

Habitat

The majority of ''Schwartzia'' species grow in montane rainforests and cloud forests. ''Schwartzia costaricensis'' and ''Schwartzia andina'' reach altitudes of up to around , while the Peruvian-based, ''Schwartzia magnifica'' reaches up to . Only a few species, in particular the Colombian ''Schwartzia chocoensis'', also occur in lowland rainforests. Several species also inhabit secondary forests and forest edges. ''Schwartzia chocoensis'' is also found in mangroves and on the banks of large rivers.

The Brazilian species show clearly different habitat requirements. Only the very rare ''Schwartzia geniculatiflora'' is tied to the Atlantic rainforest.
The other species, on the other hand, occur in different types of savannas and scrub forests as well as on rocky sites. ''Schwartzia adamantium'' inhabits
the Campos cerrados in particular and reaches an altitude of above sea level, depending on its distribution inland. ''Schwartzia brasiliensis'', instead, occurs along the coast up to about above sea level and inhabits scrub forests and savannahs on rocky sites. But in coastal landscape, where it grows in scrub forests on sandy soil and along its margins. The species also occurs in mangrove forests.
''Schwartzia jucuensisis'' is known only from the rocky banks of the Jucu River in the state of Espírito Santo.

References

Other sources

* D. Giraldo-Cañas: Revisión de las especies colombianas del genero Schwartzia (Marcgraviaceae). Caldasia. 25, 2003, pp. 1–21. (PDF)
* D. Giraldo-Cañas: Validation of a new species of Schwartzia (Marcgraviaceae) and synopsis of the genus for Ecuador. Novon. 15, 2005, pp. 123–127. (on-line)
* D. Giraldo-Cañas: Lectotipificación para Schwartzia magnifica (complejo Norantea, Marcgraviaceae) and revisión del genero para Bolivia y Perú. Caldasia. 28, 2006, pp. 275–283. (on-line)
* D. Giraldo-Cañas: Las especies mesoamericanas y caribeñas del generos Schwartzia (complejo Norantea, Marcgraviaceae). Revista Institucional Universidad Tecnológica del Chocó. 27, 2008, pp. 4–18. (on-line)
* D. Giraldo-Cañas, P. Fiaschi: Las Marcgraviaceae (Ericales) de Brasil: Las esspecies del complejo Norantea. Caldasia. 27, 2005, pp. 173–194.
* Souza, V.C. 2015. Marcgraviaceae in Lista de Espécies da Flora do Brasil. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro.

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2253277

Marcgraviaceae
Ericales genera
Plants described in 1829
Flora of Veracruz
Flora of Southeastern Mexico
Flora of Central America
Flora of Venezuela
Flora of western South America