View source for Melanthera

{{Treatment/ID
|accepted_name=Melanthera
|accepted_authority=Rohr
|publications={{Treatment/Publication
|title=Skr. Naturhist.-Selsk.
|place=2: 213. 1792
|year=1792
}}
|basionyms=
|synonyms=
|hierarchy=Asteraceae;Asteraceae tribe Heliantheae;Asteraceae (tribe Heliantheae) subtribe Ecliptinae;Melanthera
|hierarchy_nav=<div class="higher-taxa"><div class="higher-taxon"><small>family</small>[[Asteraceae]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>tribe</small>[[Asteraceae tribe Heliantheae]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>subtribe</small>[[Asteraceae (tribe Heliantheae) subtribe Ecliptinae]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>genus</small>[[Melanthera]]</div></div>
|etymology=Greek melan, black, and Latin, anthera, anther
|volume=Volume 21
|mention_page=page 65, 66
|treatment_page=page 123
}}<!--

--><span class="statement" id="st-undefined" data-properties=""><b>Perennials </b>or subshrubs, 30–220 cm. <b>Stems</b> usually erect or spreading, sometimes sprawling or scandent, branched throughout (± 4-angled and sulcate, usually scabro-hispid, caudices usually ± woody, often ± spheric). <b>Leaves</b> cauline; opposite; petiolate or nearly sessile; blades (usually 3-nerved) usually lance-elliptic, linear, oblanceolate, ovate-elliptic, or ovate, sometimes deltate to 3-lobed, bases cuneate to truncate (sometimes hastate or with antrorse basal lobes), margins crenate or serrate (often irregularly), faces usually scabro-hispid, sometimes glabrescent. <b>Heads</b> discoid [radiate], borne singly or in loose, corymbiform arrays. <b>Involucres</b> ± hemispheric or broader, 6–20 mm diam. <b>Phyllaries</b> persistent, mostly 8–16 in 2–3 series (mostly ovate to lanceolate, subequal to unequal, bases pallid, with or without green veins, apices herbaceous, tips usually ± mucronate). <b>Receptacles</b> flat to convex or convex-hemispheric, paleate (paleae oblanceolate, conduplicate, apices mucronate, pungent, erect or spreading to recurved). <b>Ray</b> florets 0 [8–15]. <b>Disc</b> florets 20–100+, bisexual; corollas white [pale to bright yellow], tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform to cylindric throats, lobes 5, ± deltate (anther sacs black; style branches stigmatic in 2 lines, appendages lance-triangular, papillate). <b>Cypselae</b> (± brown) obpyramidal, (3–)4-angled, not or slightly compressed (striate, rarely verrucose-tuberculate, glabrous); pappi readily falling, of 2–12 barbellulate bristles or awns. <b>x</b> = 15.</span><!--

-->{{Treatment/Body
|distribution=North America;Mexico;West Indies;Central America;South America;Africa.
|discussion=<p>Species ca. 20 (3 in the flora).</p><!--
--><p><i>Melanthera</i> is common as a strand and weedy plant in Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, South America, and sub-Saharan Africa. In the flora, <i>Melanthera</i> is distinguished by its lack of ray florets, white disc corollas, distinctive cypselae, and delicate, caducous pappus awns. Tilesia G. F. W. Meyer (= Wulffia Necker ex Cassini), Wollastonia de Candolle ex Decaisne, and Echinocephalum Gardner are closely related to <i>Melanthera</i>. The type of Echinocephalum (South America; rays neuter, corollas pale yellow) may be congeneric with that of <i>Melanthera</i>. Inclusion of African species (all radiate) in <i>Melanthera</i> further broadens and complicates its delimitation. H. Wild (1965) broadened the circumscription even more by including the unispecific Wollastonia among African <i>Melanthera</i> species with styliferous ray florets.</p>
|tables=
|references=
}}<!--

--><div class="treatment-key">
==Key==
<div class="treatment-key-group">
  
{| class="wikitable fna-keytable"
|-id=key-0-1
|1
|Leaf blades usually linear to narrowly lanceolate-oblanceolate, rarely narrowly ovate-elliptic; peduncles glabrescent; phyllaries ovate, 4–5 × 2–3 mm; mucros on paleae 0.5–1 mm, straight to slightly recurved
|[[Melanthera angustifolia|Melanthera angustifolia]]
|-id=key-0-1
|1
|Leaf blades usually ovate, sometimes deltate or 3-lobed, rarely lanceolate-elliptic; peduncles hispid to strigose; phyllaries broadly ovate to lanceolate, 5–7 × 1.5–3 mm, or 3–10 × 3–4 mm; mucros on paleae 0.5–1.5 mm, usually notably recurved
|[[#key-0-2| > 2]]
|-id=key-0-2
|2
|Plants 30–60 cm; stems sprawling to weakly erect; leaf blades 1.5–4 × 1–1.5 cm; florets 25–40
|[[Melanthera parvifolia|Melanthera parvifolia]]
|-id=key-0-2
|2
|Plants 50–220 cm; stems usually erect, sometimes sprawling or scandent; leaf blades 5–12 × 3–8 cm; florets 30–100+
|[[Melanthera nivea|Melanthera nivea]]
|}
</div></div><!--

-->{{#Taxon:
name=Melanthera
|author=James C. Parks†
|authority=Rohr
|rank=genus
|parent rank=subtribe
|synonyms=
|basionyms=
|family=Asteraceae
|distribution=North America;Mexico;West Indies;Central America;South America;Africa.
|reference=None
|publication title=Skr. Naturhist.-Selsk.
|publication year=1792
|special status=
|source xml=https://jpend@bitbucket.org/aafc-mbb/fna-data-curation.git/src/eaa6e58056e40c9ef614d8f47aea294977a1a5e9/coarse_grained_fna_xml/V19-20-21/V21_301.xml
|tribe=Asteraceae tribe Heliantheae
|subtribe=Asteraceae (tribe Heliantheae) subtribe Ecliptinae
|genus=Melanthera
}}<!--

-->[[Category:Treatment]][[Category:Asteraceae (tribe Heliantheae) subtribe Ecliptinae]]