Sanchezia Ruiz & Pav.

Daniel, Thomas F., 2018, Chromosome Numbers of Some Cultivated Acanthaceae with Notes on Chromosomal Evolution in the Family, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 64 (9), pp. 319-332 : 327

Sanchezia Ruiz & Pav.

— This genus of about 55 species is native to tropical America. Our approximate count of n = ca. 36–40 for S. parvibracteata Sprague & Hutch. , native to tropical South America and possibly southern Central America, is similar to the only previous count for this species, n = 40 ( Narayanan 1951). The only other species of Sanchezia to have been counted is S. oblonga Ruiz & Pav. , a species native to Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, with counts of n = 68 ( Singh 1951; Kaur 1970; both as S. nobilis Hook.f. ) and n = ca. 66 ( Grant 1955, as S. nobilis )–the highest haploid numbers so far reported for the family ( Daniel 2000a; Tripp et al. 2013).

Sanchezia pertains to and is the largest genus in Ruellieae: Trichantherinae. Based on Tripp et al. (2013) the six genera of this subtribe are generally related as follows: Louteridium + ( Trichosanchezia + ( Suessenguthia + Sanchezia )) + ( Trichanthera + Bravaisia )). No counts have been published for any other genera in the subtribe. However, several approximate counts (Daniel unpublished) for Bravaisia and Louteridium reveal relatively high numbers for these genera and further suggest that polyploidy and probably also dysploidy were involved in the evolution of both the subtribe and its constituent genera ( Daniel 2000a).