Archive for Acanthaceae

Aphelandra and the big sex cell

December 12, 2006 at 1:40 pm · Filed under Acanthaceae, Botany, Flowers

Blooming now at the edge of a “tangled bank” of growth alongside our seasonal stream is an Aphelandra species, relative to the zebra plant, A. squarrosa.

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It is a shrub with a candle-like flower-head or inflorescence. You can see in the next image its green bracts, which are tinged with yellow and orange, and its tubular, fuzzy, scarlet flowers.

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The name, Aphelandra, comes from the Greek apheles, meaning simple, and andra, meaning male. The name could mean “sleek anther,” but it refers to the fact that the anther (the male, pollen-producing portion of the flower) consists of a single cell.

I’ll get back to that anther in a moment. Read the rest of this entry »

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Mistaken identity

August 3, 2006 at 7:03 pm · Filed under Acanthaceae, Botany

One more example of the treachery of identifying plants by online images. Today’s photo in Botany Photo of the Day is of Origanum ‘Barbara Tingey’. But the image looked hauntingly like the shrimp plant we have growing in front of our porch.

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I know the shrimp plant as Beloperone guttata from the tropical plant books I have on hand. The B. guttata designation is a synonym for Justicia brandegeana Wasshausen & L. B. Smith. I was very surprised to see an ornamental oregano plant looking, at first, like a near relative to the shrimp plant. On closer examination I saw that both the flowers and the leaves are greatly different. It was the bract arrangement that had me fooled.

The shrimp plant bracts are a deep scarlet color, more the color of cooked lobsters than of cooked shrimp, but the shape of the bract arrangement is definitely a shrimp shape. The bracts on the ornamental oregano are more parchment-like and nearly transparent. They’re enjoyed as dried flowers.

The ornamental oregano is in the Lamiaceae, or mint, family. They’re native to Mediterranean countries. The shrimp plant is in the Acanthaceae, or Acanthus, family. It’s native to Mexico and Brazil.

Think, convergent evolution. And chalk up another learning experience!

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