Hohenbergia mesoamericana I.Ramírez, Carnevali et Cetzal
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- Introduction
The genus Hohenbergia Schult. et Schult. f. comprises 61 species (Luther, 2006), distributed from the West Indies to Brazil, with most of the species reported from Brazil (ca. 73%), most of these (ca. 60%) coming from the state of Bahia. Another large component of the genus comes from the Antilles (ca. 27% of the species). There is a disjunct species in the western slopes of Andean Colombia (H. andina Betancur), a geographical distribution suggesting long-distance dispersal. Plants of Hohenbergia are characterized by their terrestrial, saxicolous, or epiphytic habit, and by their stemless rosettes bearing several to many rosulate leaves, with the blades being spinose-serrate. The infl orescence scape is well developed, the rachis mostly bipinnate and lax, though it is rarely digitate or simple. The fl owers are perfect in terete strobiles, or on sessile or subsessile branches. The sepals are asymmetric, mostly very shortly connate, and the petals bear appendages with well developed scales. The stamens are included, with those from series I being free, and those from series II being partially adnate to the petals. The epigynous tube in the fl ower is shallow or lacking. The ovary remains distinct from the pedicel in fruit, the pollen displays 2 or 4 pores, the placentas are mostly apical, bearing ovules that are obtuse to long-caudate (Smith and Till, 1998). The genus has been divided into 2 subgenera, Hohenbergia and Wittmackiopsis Mez. The former comprises taxa from eastern Brazil, with 1 species (H. stellata Schult. f.) ranging into Venezuela and the Lesser Antilles. Subgenus Hohenbergia features ovules that are mostly caudate (obtuse in H. utriculosa Ule), leaves with independent sclerenchyma fascicles, infl orescences that are amply tripinnate in most species (rarely digitate or simple, e.g., H. littoralis L. B. Sm.), and petals that are purple, blue, rose, yellow, or green, more rarely white (H. rosea L. B. Sm. et R. W. Read). Species in subgenus. —See Ramirez et al. 2010
