Phylloboea (in its traditional sense)

Phylloboea (in its traditional sense)

Full name and orig. publication: Phylloboea Benth., in Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. pl. 2: 102 (April 1876) ("Phyllobaea").

Etymology: Composed of the Greek φυλλον, phyllon = leaf, and the generic name Boea. The first part of the name probably alludes to the conspicuous, persistent bracteoles of the inflorescences.

Synonyms: -

Infrafamilial position: Didymocarpoid Gesneriaceae - "Advanced Asiatic and Malesian genera" (Weber 2004).

Description: Terrestrial herbs with lignescent stem base. Leaves large, opposite; petiole long, winged, lamina ovate. Cymes axillary, pedunculate, bracteoles conspicuous, rounded, persistent. Sepals connate, the upper ones c. halfway, the lower ones only basally, thus forming a distinctly bilabiate calyx. Corolla white, rose-coloured in mouth; wide-campanulate, limb subregular or sub-bilabiate, lobes ovate, obtuse, subequal. Stamens 2, filaments curved; anthers reniform, connivent, locules confluent, dehiscing by a single slit. Nectary unknown (lacking?). Ovary conical; style longer than ovary, curved. Capsule narrow, longer than calyx, loculicidally dehiscent.

Chromosome number: Unknown.

Species number: 1

Type and only species: Phylloboea glandulosa B.L.Burtt

Distribution: Burma (Moulmein).

Ecology: No details known.

Notes: Significant features include (a) conspicuous, persistent bracteoles, (b) bilabiate calyx, (c) wide-campanulate corolla with 2 stamens.

Selected references: Burtt, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 23: 89-90 (1960); Puglisi, Taxon 60(6): 1693-1702 (2011), inclus. in Paraboea.

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