Flora of North America species comparison

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Thalia geniculata

arrowroot, bent alligator-flag, fire-flag
Habit Plants 1–3.5 m.
Leaves

basal 2–6, cauline 0–1(–2);

sheath green or occasionally red-purple, glabrous;

petiole green or occasionally red-purple, glabrous;

pulvinus caramel-colored, olive-green, or red-purple, 0.3–2.5 cm, glabrous;

blade ovate to narrowly ovate, 19–60 × 4–26 cm, firm, stiff-papery, base rounded to subtruncate, apex acute to acuminate, occasionally obtuse with acuminate tip, abaxial surface green, faintly pruinose, glabrous, adaxial surface glabrous.
Inflorescences

lax, broadly spreading to pendeant, paniclelike array, up to ca. 0.6 × 1 m;

scapes 0.8–2.5 m;

rachis not pruinose;

internodes 5–20 mm;

bracts not pruinose, green or streaked or tinged with purple, narrowly ovate, 1.3–2.8 cm, herbaceous, sparsely to densely villous.
Flowers

sepals 0.5–2 mm;

outer staminode faint lavender to purple, 15–20 × 5–10 mm;

callose staminode base yellow, apex purple, apical rim, reflexed, petal-like.
Fruits

ellipsoid, 9–12 × 6–7 mm.
Seeds

smooth dark brown to black, ellipsoid, 7–10 × 5–6 mm.
2n

= 18 (Senegal) 2n = 26 (in cultivation).

Thalia geniculata
Phenology Flowering summer–fall (late Jun–Dec); fruiting summer–winter (Aug–Jan).
Habitat Lowlands in ponds, wet roadside ditches, swamps, marshes, cypress sloughs, margin of streams or lakes, full sun, often in regions with pronounced dry season
Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; Mexico; Central America; West Indies; South America (to Argentina and Paraguay); w Africa
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

This species has the widest distribution known for any of the Marantaceae, occurring in both Africa and the Americas. Because of the marked lack of variation among the African populations, it is believed that its occurrence in west Africa was a historically recent, probably accidental, introduction (L. Andersson 1981b). The variation in pubescence and bract size within the American continent has been used as the basis for describing additional species or varieties (L. Andersson 1981b). Populations of Thalia geniculata with a striking red-purple coloration on the petiole, sheath, and pulvinus were described as T. geniculata f. rheumoides Shuey (A. G. Shuey 1975) . Such homogeneous populations are to be expected in a mainly selfing species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Marantaceae > Thalia
Sibling taxa
T. dealbata
Synonyms T. divaricata, T. trichocalyx, T. welwitschii
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1193. (1753)
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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