Plowmanianthus

taxobox
name = "Plowmanianthus"
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Monocots
unranked_ordo = Commelinids
ordo = Commelinales
familia = Commelinaceae
genus = "Plowmanianthus"
subdivision_ranks = species
subdivision = *"Plowmanianthus dressleri" Faden & C.R.Hardy
*"Plowmanianthus grandifolius" Faden & C.R.Hardy
*"Plowmanianthus panamensis" Faden & C.R.Hardy
*"Plowmanianthus perforans" Faden & C.R.Hardy
*"Plowmanianthus peruvianus" C.R.Hardy & Faden|

"Plowmanianthus" Faden & C.R.Hardy is a genus of plants with 5 species and 2 subspecies in the family Commelinaceae (the spiderwort and dayflower family). The genus is distributed from Panama to Amazonian Peru and Brazil.

ystematics

"Plowmanianthus" is a member of the subtribe Dichorisandrinae of the tribe Tradescantieae of the flowering plant family Commelinaceae. It has 5 species and 2 subspecies, all of which were described with the circumscription of the genus itself by Hardy and Faden (2004).

Morphology

Rosette, typically unbranched herbs with somewhat succulent, strap-shaped leaves. In the wild, plants grow on the floor of primary rainforests, shallowly rooted in the humus-rich and leaf-litter layers.

"Plowmanianthus" resembles its close relative, the epiphytic genus "Cochliostema", but is smaller (its leaves reach only to ca. 30 cm in length) and is not epiphytic. Its flowers are also much smaller, lack the spirally coiled anthers of "Cochliostema", and are usually cleistogamous (i.e., they usually never open).

References

*Hardy CR, RB Faden (2004) "Plowmanianthus", a new genus of Commelinaceae with five new species from tropical America. "Systematic Botany" 29 (2): 316-333.

*Hardy CR, JI Davis, DW Stevenson (2004) Floral organogenesis in "Plowmanianthus" (Commelinaceae). "International Journal of Plant Sciences" 165 (4): 511-519.