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Common name: 

Latin name and synonyms: Voyriella (Miq.) Miq., Stirp. Surinam. Select. 146 (1850 [1851])
Synonym: Voyria sect. Voyriella Miq., Tijdschr. Wis.-Natuurk. Wetensch. Eerste Kl. Kon. Ned. Inst. Wetensch. 2: 122 (1849)

Species:   Only one (polymorphic) species is known from this genus, V. parviflora.

Distribution:   Tropical South America (Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Peru, Brazil).

Habitat:  Rainforests, low and middle elevation.

Characteristics: Perennial herbs, white, without chlorophyll. Stems square, sometimes slightly winged. Leaves scale-like. Flowers (4-)5(-6)-merous, shortly stalked, in dense, terminal cymes. Calyx with nearly free lobes, with colleters. Corollas white, tubular to salver-shaped, tube longer than lobes. Stamens inserted in corolla tube; anthers basifixed. Pollen released as monads. Ovary unilocular, ovoid, tapering into a distinct style; placentas parietal. Stigma bilobed or variable.

Evolution and related plants: Voyriella is related to the genera of the tribe Saccifolieae, and not to other non-chlorophyllous gentians (Cotylanthera and Voyria).

Economic uses:  None known.

Notes: A second species has sometimes been identified in Voyriella, V. oxycarpa.  It differs from V. parviflora in the size of the corolla, filaments, and styles, but grows in the same areas as V. parviflora. Maas and Ruyters (1986) argued that V. oxycarpa was only the long-styled form of a heterostylous V. parviflora. The short-styled form have shorter filaments and anthers that are connate (vs. free in long-styled), non-sagittate (vs. sagittate), and with sterile apices (vs. without sterile tips).

Accepted/Selected species (synonyms in parenthesis) and their distribution:

References and publications: 

Maas, P. J. M. & P. Ruyters. 1986. Voyria and Voyriella (saprophytic Gentianaceae). Flora Neotropica Monograph 41. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY.

Struwe, L., J. W. Kadereit, J. Klackenberg, S. Nilsson, M. Thiv, K. B. von Hagen, & V. A. Albert. 2002. Systematics, character evolution, and biogeography of Gentianaceae, including a new tribal and subtribal classification. Pp. 21-309. In: L. Struwe & V. A. Albert (eds.), Gentianaceae: Systematics and Natural History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Struwe, L., P. J. M. Maas, O. Pihlar, & V. A. Albert. 1999. Gentianaceae. Pp. 474-542. In: P. E. Berry, K. Yatskievych, & B. K. Holst, editors. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, vol. 5. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.  (images)

Links:

Stephan Imhof, The Myco-Heterotrophs-Gallery [saprophytes, images, research]

Home page of Hiltje Maas-van de Kamer and Paul J. M. Maas. Saprophytes.

© Lena Struwe, 2004