Walteranthus is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Gyrostemonaceae.[1] It only contains one known species, Walteranthus erectus.[2]

Walteranthus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Brassicales
Family: Gyrostemonaceae
Genus: Walteranthus
Keighery
Species:
W. erectus
Binomial name
Walteranthus erectus
Keighery

It is native to the state of Western Australia.[2][3][4]

Description

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They are monoecious,[3] (meaning hermaphroditic, with male and female reproductive structures in separate flowers but on the same plant), short-lived shrubs.[5] The leaves are linear to narrowly elliptic in shape and somewhat succulent. The male flowers are in axillary racemes with the axis not growing out.[5] They have 9-12 stamens,[3] in 1 whorl. The female flowers are solitary, axillary and they are among the upper males and above them. It has 2-5 carpels,[3] united. The stylodia (an elongate stigma that resembles a style) is erect. The fruit (or seed capsule) is a hard indehiscent, slightly rugulose (finely wrinkled) syncarp.[1] The seeds are faintly rugose (wrinkled).[5]

Taxonomy

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The genus name of Walteranthus is in honour of Hans Paul Heinrich Walter (b. 1882), a German botanist who worked with Adolf Engler.[6] The Latin specific epithet of erectus means erect or upright.[7] Both the genus and the species were first described and published in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. Vol.106 on pages 108-110 in 1985.[2]

The genus is recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service since 1994, but they do not list any known species.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b Hufford, Larry (November 1996). "Developmental Morphology of Female Flowers of Gyrostemon and Tersonia and Floral Evolution among Gyrostemonaceae". American Journal of Botany. 83 (11): 1471–1487. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1996.tb13941.x.
  2. ^ a b c "Walteranthus Keighery | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d James W. Byng The Flowering Plants Handbook: A practical guide to families and genera of the world (2014), p. 317, at Google Books
  4. ^ Stephen D. Hopper Western Australia's Endangered Flora and Other Plants Under Consideration for Declaration (1990), p. 121, at Google Books
  5. ^ a b c Klaus Kubitzki and Clemens Bayer (Editors) The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants Vol.5, Flowering plants. Dicotyledons: Malvales, Capparales and Non-betalain Caryophyllales (2013), p. 216, at Google Books
  6. ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  7. ^ Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for Gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 978-1845337315.
  8. ^ "Genus Walteranthus Keighery". npgsweb.ars-grin.gov. Retrieved 10 January 2022.