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The convoluted history of the name Lisianthus

Common name: None known.

Latin name and synonyms: Tetrapollinia Maguire & Boom, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 51: 31 (1989).

Etymology: This genus is named after its pollen grains that are fused four together into a tetrad (Tetra = four, pollinia =pollen). The species Tetrapollinia caerulescens is named after its sometimes blue flowers (caerulescens = darkblue).

Species: Only one species, Tetrapollinia caerulescens.

Distribution: In the Amazon Basin and southwards in South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela).

Habitat:  Savannas and often wet grasslands

Characteristics:  A single-stemmed annual, sometimes very small and inconspicuous. Leaves are sessile, linear (rarely narrowly ovate), and usually only with midvein. Inflorescence a terminal cyme with monochasial branches, with 1–20 flowers; bracts scale-like. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx campanulate, with dorsal keels along lobes, the lobes long and triangular, with acute apices; corolla funnelshaped, varying from white, blue, pink to purple, with triangular or ovate lobes with acute apices. Pollen in tetrads, the exine spinose. Fruit a capsule, opening from apex

Evolution and related plants:   Tetrapollinia is placed close to Aripuana, Chelonanthus uliginosus, and Irlbachia pratensis in evolutionary studies.  However, other species of Chelonanthus and Irlbachia are not closely related to Tetrapollinia.

Economic uses:  None known.

Notes: This is a rather variable species, ranging from a small 1-inch tall annual to a foot high.  The plant always has slender stems and thin leaves, and is morphologically most similar to Irlbachia pratensis.

Accepted species (synonyms in parenthesis) and their distribution:

References and publications: 

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.

© Lena Struwe, 2004