Huynhia Explained

Huynhia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Boraginaceae, from Asia.[1]

It is native to Iran, North Caucasus (within Russia), Transcaucasus (or Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan), and Turkey.

The genus was circumscribed by Werner Greuter in Willdenowia vol.11 on page 37 in 1981.

The position of Huynhia within the Boraginaceae family remains unresolved.[2] The genus was previously monotypic with just Huynhia pulchra (or Arnebia pulchra) in 1981 but then Huynhia purpurea was discovered in 2015.[3] Arnebia pulchra is still used in some sources.[4]

The genus name of Huynhia is in honour of Kim-Lang Huynh (b.1935), a Swiss botanist working at the University of Neuchâtel.[5]

Description

It is a perennial herb, with a stout pleiocorm (a system of compact and perennial shoots occurring at the proximal end of the persistent primary root).It has basal and cauline (on the stem) leaves; the basal leaves are oblong and the cauline leaves are narrowly ovate.The inflorescence is a dense, bracteose cymoid (resembling a cyme). The flowers are distylous, with a divided calyx nearly to the base with the lobes obtuse, but not hardening and without thickened nerves or angular projections when in fruit.The corolla is hypocrateriform (Salver shaped), with a narrow tube, puberulent (covered with minute soft erect hairs) outside, without faucal (the throat of a calyx or corolla) scales or annulus and with a spreading limb. The stamens are inserted at 2 different levels below the throat.The stigma is capitate bilobed (like a divided pin head). The nutlets (small fruit/ seed capsules) are erect, ovoid-subglobose (in shape), apically acute and shortly beaked, ventrally keeled and finely tuberculate-scrobiculate (having very small pits).[6]

Species

2 known accepted species by Kew;

Other sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Huynhia Greuter Plants of the World Online Kew Science . Plants of the World Online . 3 July 2022 . en.
  2. Chacón . Juliana . Luebert . Federico . Selvi . Federico . Cecchi . Lorenzo . Weigend . Maximilian . Phylogeny and historical biogeography of Lithospermeae (Boraginaceae): Disentangling the possible causes of Miocene diversifications . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . December 2019 . 141. 10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106626 . 31526848 . 2019MolPE.14106626C .
  3. Raymond Cooper and Jeffrey John Deakin (Editors)
  4. James Cullen, Sabina G. Knees, H. Suzanne Cubey and J. M. H. Shaw (Editors)
  5. Book: Burkhardt, Lotte . Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen . Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names . Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin . 2022 . 978-3-946292-41-8 . pdf . German . Berlin . 10.3372/epolist2022 . January 27, 2022.
  6. Joachim W. Kadereit and Volker Bittrich (Editors)