Rochefortia Sw.

Irimia, Ramona-Elena & Gottschling, Marc, 2016, Taxonomic revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales), Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 7720-7720 : 7720

Rochefortia Sw.

Rochefortia Rochefortia Prod.: 53. 1788Fl. Ind. Occid. 551, pl. XI. 1797 Rochefortia sect. Stellatae Wiss. Z. Friedrich-Schiller-Univ. Jena, Math.-Naturwiss. Reihe 29: 470. 1980 Rochefortia ser. Acanthophorae Revista Jard. Bot. Nac. Univ. Habana 3: 105. 1982

Rochefortia Lutrostylis Gen. hist. 4: 391. 1838 Lutrostylis spinosa Don (1838) Lutrostylis L. inermis Ehretia fasciculata L. spinosa R. spinosa L. montevidensis Verbenaceae

Rochefortia Rochefortia cuneata Sw. Britton and Millspaugh (1920) Reason for typification: Indication or designation of a type in the protologue, names of genera or subdivisions of genera (Art. 10, 40).

Description

Shrubs or trees, rarely lianas, thorny, short shoot galls present or absent; bark striate, with superficial grooves, longitudinally fissured, grey light to dark brown, with lenticels; indument absent at maturity or puberulent, trichomes simple, sometimes glandular, rarely branched ( R. stellata ). Leaves fasciculate, rarely alternate or subopposite ( R. lundellii , R. spinosa ), simple; petiole hirsute through glabrous; blade elliptic through obovate, sometimes orbicular ( R. bahamensis ), margin entire, texture coriaceous, occasionally membranaceous ( R. cuneata ), venation brochidodromous, reticulate; indument variously pubescent through hispid, rarely absent, trichomes unicellular, frequently containing cystoliths (also in adjacent subsidiary cells) and causing the typical roughness of leaf surface. Inflorescence thyrsoid, terminal or axillary, branching sympodial, sometimes heavily condensed or flowers solitary, ebracteolate. Buds obovoid, whitish green; flower actinomorphic, unisexual, sometimes fragrant, distinctly pedicellate ( R. bahamensis , R. barloventensis , R. lundellii , R. spinosa ) to sub-sessile ( R. stellata ) or almost sessile ( R. acanthophora , R. cubensis ); calyx persistent, coriaceous, campanulate, aestivation imbricate; corolla sympetalous, predominantly white or rarely yellow orange or greenish, turning brown at later ontogenetic stage, membranaceous, funnel-shaped, aestivation imbricate; stamens 5, rarely 4 or 6, exserted, filaments adnate to corolla tube for 0.10-0.15 cm, flattened, anthers of male flowers with pollen, anthers of female flowers empty and diminutive; ovary of male flowers choricarpous, carpels fused only at the gynobase, stylodia 2, distally with a tuft of dense, grey trichomes, ovary of female flowers coencarpous-syncarpous, with a well developed style consisting of 2 distinct branches or with 2 stylodia, style or stylodia 2-2.5 times longer than ovary and fruit, stigmas capitate, usually well developed. Fruit indehiscent, drupaceous, exocarp brightly red at maturity, later turning brown, exocarp membranaceous, mesocarp fleshy, endocarp ligneous and 4-parted; pyrene smooth through variously ornamented on abaxial surface, enclosing 1 seed, placenta extensive, but not enclosed in sterile chamber of pyrene, embryo curved.