Epixiphium
Epixiphium wislizeni
epixiphium
balloonbush, sand snapdragon, viny snapdragon
climbing or scrambling, glabrous.
cauline, alternate;
petiole twining;
blade fleshy, not leathery, margins entire.
petiole 14–54 mm;
blade hastate to broadly sagittate, 21–75 × 8–48 mm, surfaces glabrous.
axillary, flowers solitary;
bracts absent.
present;
bracteoles absent.
ascending, 3–9 mm, thickened in fruit.
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.
sepals 13–18 × 2–4 mm, basally keeled, membranous in flower, 20–32 × 8–12 mm, indurate in fruit;
corolla tube 17–22 mm, glabrous or sparsely hairy, throat open, palate not inflated, abaxial plicae white spotted with blue or violet, lobes: abaxial reflexed, adaxial erect, equal, 7–12 mm;
stamens included, filaments incurved, hairy at base, abaxial 11–13 mm, adaxial 13–15 mm, pollen sacs oblong;
ovary glabrous, locules subequal;
style included, 13–15 mm, indurate in fruit, stigma recurved.
capsules, dehiscence loculicidal.
ovoid, compressed apically, 11–15 mm, indurate.
100–200, dark brown, ovoid-ellipsoid, wings present.
3–4 mm, surface tuberculate, circumalate.
= 12.
= 24.
Epixiphium
Epixiphium wislizeni
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.)
Epixiphium wislizeni is easily identified in fruit and by its occurrence on unconsolidated, sandy soils. When vegetative or in flower, it resembles Maurandella antirrhiniflora. In Texas, E. wislizeni is known from the trans-Pecos region.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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