Hunzikeria

Subshrubs, pubescent, hairs simple, glandular or eglandular. Stems decumbent, branched. Leaves alternate. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, solitary or paired flowers. Flowers 5-merous, bilaterally symmetric; calyx not accrescent, campanulate, lobes 5, triangular; corolla pink to purple, bilateral, salverform, (slightly enlarged at summit of tube), lobes broadly spreading, rounded; stamens 4, inserted near summit of corolla tube, unequal, sometimes with a 5th represented by a staminode; anthers ventrifixed, spheric, dehiscing by longitudinal slits; ovary 2-carpellate; style proximally slender, distally ± curved; stigma capitate-bilobed. Fruits capsules, subglobose, (4-valved). Seeds reniform. x = 8.

Distribution

Texas, Mexico, Central America, South America (to Venezuela).

Discussion

Species 3 (1 in the flora).

Hunzikeria embraces subshrub plants of Texas, Mexico, and Venezuela that A. Gray placed in Leptoglossis Bentham. The flowers of Hunzikeria resemble those of Nierembergia, which is cultivated in the flora area, but the latter have five fertile stamens. A most unusual feature of Hunzikeria is the seed, which is large (ca. 1.5 mm) and wrinkled or furrowed. The obconic calyx with five shortened, deltate lobes, plus the long salverform corolla with a distal enlargement of the tube and a broadly spreading limb, serve to distinguish Hunzikeria from other Solanaceae.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Hunzikeria texana