Kingdom Plantae Clade Monocots Subfamily Scilloideae Rank Genus | Clade Angiosperms Family Asparagaceae Higher classification Scilloideae Order Asparagales | |
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Similar Scilloideae, Dipcadi, Resnova, Barnardia, Merwilla | ||
Pseudogaltonia is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae (also treated as the family Hyacinthaceae). It is distributed in southern Africa (the Cape Province of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana).
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Description
Pseudogaltonia grows from a large bulb with a fibrous tunic. The flowers are borne on a long stem (scape) in a pyramid-shaped raceme. Individual flowers are borne on long stalks (pedicels) and droop downwards. The tepals are fused at the base, forming a tube about two-thirds or three-quarters of the length of the flower, swollen slightly at its base. The tubular part of the tepals is green, the free lobes are whitish with a green streak. The stamens, which protrude from the flower, have broad triangle-shaped filaments which are arise from the mouth of the flower tube and green anthers. The seeds are black.
Systematics
The name Pseudogaltonia was first used by Otto Kuntze in 1886 as the name of a section within the genus Hyacinthus. He also suggested that those who preferred smaller genera could use it as the name of a separate genus. In 1888, Adolf Engler used Kuntze's Pseudogaltonia as a genus name in his treatment of the Liliaceae. Kuntze had named the only species known at that time as Hyacinthus pechuelii, which Engler transferred to Pseudogaltonia pechuelii. However, the species had already been described with the name Galtonia clavata in 1884, giving the epithet "clavata" priority over "pechuelii." A second species of Pseudogaltonia, P. liliiflora, was named in 2009.
The genus is placed in the tribe Ornithogaleae (or the subfamily Ornithogaloideae by those who use the family Hyacinthaceae). Within this tribe, molecular phylogenetic studies place it as most closely related to the genus Dipcadi.
Species
As of April 2013, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognized the following two species:
