Barleria oenotheroides
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| Barleria oenotheroides | |
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| Barleria oenotheroides flowering | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Acanthaceae |
| Genus: | Barleria |
| Species: | B. oenotheroides |
| Binomial name | |
| Barleria oenotheroides | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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List
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Barleria oenotheroides, sometimes called Giant Yellow Shrimp or simply Yellow Barleria, is a species of subshrub native both to the Americas and Africa. It belongs to the mostly tropical Acanthus Family, the Acanthaceae.[1]
Barleria oenotheroides displays these noteworthy features:[2]
- Stems are erect, herbaceous, and growing to about 80 cm (31 in) tall, with hair-like trichomes up to 1 mm (1⁄16 in) long lying close to the stem, and dense, prominent, tiny cystoliths.
- Leaves are up to 23 cm (9.1 in) long and 5.2 cm (2 in), wide. On petioles up to 1.5 cm (1⁄2 in) long, blades gradually diminish to a point at both ends. Blade margins develop no teeth or indentations and their surfaces bear trichomes and cystoliths.
- Inflorescences are dense, terminal spikes up to 7 cm (2+3⁄4 in) long, with a few flowers at a time emerging from behind conspicuous sharp-pointed bracts up to 35 mm (1+1⁄2 in) long and 15 mm (1⁄2 in) wide. The bracts' outside surfaces are velvety-hairy with some gland-tipped trichomes mixed in. Bract margins bear spiny trichomes up to 2 mm (1⁄8 in) long.
- Flowers up to 45 mm (2 in) long have yellow corollas which are bilaterally symmetrical, consisting of a slender tube up to about 30 mm (1+1⁄8 in) long, topped with 5 lobes spreading atop the tube in a 4+1 configuration; the lobes are about as long as the tube. Two stamens about 40 mm (1+1⁄2 in) project beyond the tube bearing conspicuous anthers.
- Fruits are elliptic, up to 20 mm (3⁄4 in) long, with the tips gradually diminishing to a point.
Distribution
With populations in both the American and African tropics, Barleria oenotheroides displays a strikingly disjunct distribution. In the Americas the species is native to Mexico south through Central America into Columbia and Venezuela in northern South America. In Africa it occurs in the western equatorial countries of Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Central African Republic.[3]
Distribution
With populations in both the American and African tropics, Barleria oenotheroides displays a strikingly disjunct distribution. In the Americas the species is native to Mexico south through Central America into Columbia and Venezuela in northern South America. In Africa it occurs in the western equatorial countries of Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Central African Republic.[4]