Scadoxus pseudocaulus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Scadoxus pseudocaulus | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Amaryllidaceae |
| Subfamily: | Amaryllidoideae |
| Genus: | Scadoxus |
| Species: | S. pseudocaulus |
| Binomial name | |
| Scadoxus pseudocaulus | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
Haemanthus pseudocaulus I.Bjørnstad & Friis | |
Scadoxus pseudocaulus is a herbaceous plant native to Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Gabon. Similar in many respects to Scadoxus cinnabarinus, it is cultivated as an ornamental plant but has proved reluctant to flower.
Scadoxus pseudocaulus was shown to be closely related to Scadoxus cinnabarinus in a 1984 cladistic analysis based on morphological features. It is one of the group of Scadoxus species that grows from rhizomes alone rather than also having bulbs.[2] It differs from Scadoxus cinnabarinus mainly in having a pseudostem – a false stems produced by the tightly wrapped bases of the leaf stalks (petioles).[3] Another difference is that the free segments at the ends of the tepals (the basal parts of the tepals being fused into a tube) are narrower, with usually only three veins instead of five.[2] The flowers are arranged in a cone- or globe-shaped umbel of 20–50 individual flowers.[3]
Taxonomy
Scadoxus pseudocaulus was first collected for science in 1935.[3] It was first formally described as a separate species in 1972 by Inger Bjørnstad (née Nordal) and Ib Friis, as Haemanthus pseudocaulus.[1]
Scadoxus had been separated from Haemanthus by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1838,[4] when he moved Haemanthus multiflorus to Scadoxus multiflorus.[5] This separation was ignored by most workers until 1976, when Scadoxus was again segregated from Haemanthus by Friis and Nordal, and Haemanthus pseudocaulus was transferred to Scadoxus pseudocaulus.[6]