Tropaeolum emarginatum
Species of flowering plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tropaeolum emarginatum is a flowering plant belonging to the family Tropaeolaceae. That family occurs naturally only in the New World, and comprises only the single genus Tropaeolum,[1] in which all the species commonly are known as nasturiums.
| Tropaeolum emarginatum | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Embryophytes |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Spermatophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Brassicales |
| Family: | Tropaeolaceae |
| Genus: | Tropaeolum |
| Species: | T. emarginatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Tropaeolum emarginatum Turcz. | |
| Synonyms | |
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Description
Tropaeolum emarginatum, like all species of Tropaeolum, displays these prominent features:[2]
- It is an herbaceous, hairless annual with unbranched stems that often climb.
- Its leaves arise singly where they attach to their stems.
- Leaf blade margins are not toothed or cut, but can be wavy to deeply lobed.
- Petioles, often twining, attach to the leaf blade at a point within the blade's undersurface (peltate), not at the blade's base.
- Flowers on pedicels display bilateral symmetry.
- At least one of the flowers' lower sepals elongate into a slender Nectar spur.
- Fruits are schizocarps which break into one-seeded sections called mericarps.
Among the 80 or so known species of Tropaeolum, these features further distinguish Tropaeolum emarginatum:[3]
- Stems are relatively long and may climb up to about 8 m (26 ft) high.
- Petioles reach up to 9 cm (3.5 in) long
- Leaves are rounded with wavy margins usually producing 5 shallow lobes.
- Blades have 5 or more principal nerves, of which the middle three are not forked but side nerves are.
- Sepals are reddish or sometimes somewhat greenish yellow, the spur normally being red but sometimes greenish-tipped.
- Spurs are straight or slightly curved, reaching up to 25 mm (1 in) long.
- Petals bear fringes of short, hair-like cilia at their apexes.
- Petals are yellow, the upper ones often with a purple spot, though the lower ones lack the spot.
- Upper petals are of the same size or bigger than the lower ones.
Distribution
Habitat
In Panama, Tropaeolum emarginatum has been collected in mountains between ~1800 and 2130m (6000-7000 feet).[3] Also in Panama it has been documented inhabiting a light gap in a mixed forest in which oak, Podocarpus, magnolia and Symplocos were common.[4]
In Mexico, it has been documented in a clearing in a mountain's cloud forest.[5][unreliable source]
Taxonomy
Within the genus Tropaeolum, traditionally Tropaeolum emarginatum has been assigned to the section Tropaeolum. A phylogenetic analysis of the year 2000 did not change that.[6]
Etymology
The genus name Tropaeolum is New Latin from the Latin tropaeum, meaning "trophy". This refers to the shied-shaped leaves and helmet-shaped flowers.[7]
The species name emarginatum is from the Latin emargino, meaning "to deprive of its edge".[8] This could derive from the idea that sinuses between the leaves' shallow lobes represent areas where leaf edges are deprived of a presence.