Codonanthe

Full name and orig. publication: Codonanthe (Mart.) Hanst., Linnaea 26: 209 (April 1854, “1853”), nom. cons.

Etymology: Derived from the Greek κωδων, kōdōn = bell, and άνθη, anthē = flower, referring to the (sub)campanulate corolla form.

Synonyms: Hypocyrta sect. Codonanthe Mart. (1829), Coccanthera C.Koch & Hanst. (1855).

Infrafamilial position: Gesnerioideae-Gesnerieae-Columneinae (Weber et al. 2013).

Description (from Chautems & Perret 2013: 149): Epiphytic subshrub, occasionally rupicolous, never growing in ant gardens, stems pendent or creeping or ascending, sparsely branched, often producing adventitious roots. Leaves opposite, isophyllous or moderately anisophyllous, lamina fleshy, entire, sometimes serrulate, glabrous or often pubescent or pilose, foliar nectaries absent, petiole short or nearly lacking. Inflorescences l-few flowers in the upper leaf axils, rarely cymose with peduncles well developed, pedicels up to 1 cm. Flowers with sub-campanulate calyx, 5 lobes subequal, erect, linear, elliptic, oblong or ovate, margin entire, green, sometimes reddish; corolla erect in calyx, funnel-shaped or ventricose, lacking basal spur (except in C. mattos-silvae spurred basally and oblique in calyx), white, pinkish, sometimes dotted with maroon and yellow within throat and maroon outside, limb formed of 5 spreading lobes, rounded; stamens 4, included, filaments briefly adnate to the base of the corolla tube, recoiled after anthesis, anthers coherent in pairs with the 2 thecae united by a wide connective, covering most or all the dorsal surface of the anther thecae, dehiscent by a central pore, pollen exine ornamentation reticulate or microreticulate lacking spinules, bilobed nectary gland in dorsal position; ovary superior, style included, stigma bilobed to stomatomorphic. Fruit yellow-orange to dark orange berry; seeds fusiform, 1-1.2 mm long, striate, carried by fleshy funicles, but not enclosed by them.

Chromosome number: N = 8 (Codonanthe devosiana), n =16 (C. gracilis), see Chautems & Perret (2013).

Species number: 8.

Species names (only given in case of few species).

Type species: Codonanthe gracilis (Mart.) Hanst. [basionym: Hypocyrta gracilis Mart.].

Distribution: Endemic to the Atlantic forests of Brazil.

Ecology: Plants epiphytic, never growing on ant-nests

Notes: The morphologically very similar genera Codonanthe and Codonanthopsis were, based on molecular-phylgenetic studies, drastically redefined by Chautems & Perret (2013). The species number of Codonanthe (>20 in its traditional sense), was reduced to 8, while that of Codonanthopsis was raised from 2 to 13. Codonanthe, formerly a classical example of ant plants, does no longer contain ant plants, and its distribution is restricted to the Atlantic forests of Brazil. In the following the two redefined genera are compared in some detail (based on Chautems & Perret 2013: 148-149). An extensive comparison is given in Table 1 of this paper.

Codonanthe
Plants occurring exclusively in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, never growing on ant nests, extra-floral nectaries absent, corolla erect in calyx, funnel-shaped or ventricose, lacking basal spur (except in C. mattos-silvae), anther connective wide, inflated, covering most or all the dorsal side of the anther thecae, fruit an orange berry.

Codonanthopsis
Plants occurring in central America, the Caribbean, northwestern South-America and the Amazonian basin (nevertheless C. uleana occurs in the whole area, except the Caribbean, and presents also a disjunct distribution in the north-eastern part of the Brazilian Atlantic forest), often growing on ant nests, extra-floral nectaries often present on the abaxial lamina surface, corolla oblique in calyx, tube narrowly funnel-shaped with a basal spur, anther connective covering only a small portion of the dorsal side of the anther thecae, fruit either a red, pink, purple tardily dehiscent fleshy capsule or a greenish, yellowish, or reddish fleshy capsule dehiscing by 2 recurving valves.

Selected references: Chautems & Perret, Selbyana 31/2:143-156, 2013).
The following early references refer to Codonanthe and Codonanthopsis in the traditional sense and must be used with caution: Kleinfeldt, Ecology 59: 449-456 (1978), ecol.; Skog, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 65: 830-838 (1979), reg. rev. (Panama); Wiehler, Selbyana 6: 192 (1983); Chautems, Candollea 52: 159-169, new sp. (1997); Chautems in Ribeiro et al., Fl. Res. Ducke (1999), reg. rev.; Feuillet & Steyermark, Fl. Venezuel. Guayana 5 (1999), reg. rev.; Skog, Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 85: 1114-1128 (2001), reg. rev. (Nicaragua); Araujo, Chautems & Souza, Bol. Bot. Univ. São Paulo 22(1): 43-51 (2004), reg. rev. (Serro do Cipó, Minas Gerais, Brazil).

Tax. details, cytology, and bibliography: Gesneriaceae Resource Centre (GRC). Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

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