Flora of North America species comparison

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Epixiphium

epixiphium
Habit Herbs, annual, taprooted.
Stems

climbing or scrambling, glabrous.
Leaves

cauline, alternate;

petiole twining;

blade fleshy, not leathery, margins entire.
Inflorescences

axillary, flowers solitary;

bracts absent.
Pedicels

present;

bracteoles absent.
Flowers

bisexual;

sepals 5, distinct, lanceolate, calyx radially symmetric, campanulate;

corolla blue to violet, bilaterally symmetric, bilabiate, tubular, tube base not spurred or gibbous, lobes 5, abaxial 3, adaxial 2;

stamens 4, basally adnate to corolla, didynamous, filaments basally hairy;

staminode 1, filamentous;

ovary 2-locular, placentation axile;

stigma 2-lobed.
Fruits

capsules, dehiscence loculicidal.
Seeds

100–200, dark brown, ovoid-ellipsoid, wings present.
x

= 12.

Epixiphium
Distribution
from USDA
sw United States; sc United States; n Mexico
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 1.

Epixiphium is defined by distinctive characteristics in Antirrhineae: annual life cycle, taproots, keeled sepals, indurate capsules with regular transverse dehiscence, persistent style bases, and winged seeds. Based on this morphological distinctness, Epixiphium has been recognized either as a section or subgenus within Maurandya or as a genus. The latter view is adopted here based on the number of unique morphological characteristics. In phylogenetic studies based on morphological data, Epixiphium is either part of a trichotomy with Lophospermum D. Don and Rhodochiton Zuccarini ex Otto & A. Dietrich and sister to a Maurandya and Maurandella clade (M. Ghebrehiwet et al. 2000) or is basal within a Maurandya clade (W. J. Elisens 1985). Molecular ITS data placed Epixiphium in the Cymbalaria clade (M. Fernández-Mazuecos et al. 2013), sister to six other genera in a subclade that was sister to Asarina and Cymbalaria. Epixiphium wislizeni has not been included in phylogenetic studies using molecular data.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 20. Author: Wayne J. Elisens.
Parent taxa Plantaginaceae
Subordinate taxa
E. wislizeni
Synonyms Maurandya subg. epixiphium
Name authority (Engelmann ex A. Gray) Munz: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, 15: 380. (1926)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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