Under Construction

Sclerochiton

Lucinda A. McDade and Carrie Kiel
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Note: this taxon list is still under construction. It does not yet contain all known Sclerochiton subgroups.

The list above includes only taxa that were sampled by McDade et al. (2005).  There are other species of Sclerochiton that likely belong to this clade but this needs to be confirmed with further study.
Containing group: Acantheae

Introduction

Sclerochiton is a mostly eastern and southern African genus of 18 species (Vollesen 1991). There is support from DNA sequence data for monophyly of this genus, and the plants share a small prickle on the medial ventral surface of the anthers. As described in our discussion of Streptosiphon and Crossandrella, molecular data place these last two genera with Sclerochiton with strong support but morphological evidence is not as clear. Notably, Sclerochiton shared remarkably bony filaments and insertion of the filaments into of thickened flange of the internal corolla surface with Cynarospermum - Acanthus clade; Streptosiphon and Crossandrella lack these androecial traits. On the other hand, Crossandrella shares the remarkable four lobed , "fused, sheathing, reduced" calyx with Cynarospermum - Acanthus clade where Sclerochiton lacks this trait. It will be interesting to see whether more data and/or study of additional characters clarifies these enigmas.

References

McDade, L. A., T. F. Daniel, C. A. Kiel, and K. Vollesen. 2005. Phylogenetic relatinships among Acantheae (Acanthaceae): Major lineages present contrasting patterns of molecular evolution and morphological differentiation. Systematic Botany 30: 834-862.

Vollesen, K. 1991. A revision of the African genus Sclerochiton (Acanthaceae: Acantheae). Kew Bulletin 46: 1-50.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Sclerochiton harveyanus Nees
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Copyright © 2006
Scientific Name Sclerochiton ilicifolius A. Meeuse
Location South Africa
Reference Lieden Herbarium (L)
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
Collection L
Collector Meeuse 9657
Copyright © 2006
Scientific Name Sclerochiton bequaertii De Wild.
Reference Vollesen, Kaj. 1991. A revision of the African genus Sclerochiton (Acanthaceae: Acantheae). Kew Bulletin 46(1):38.
Creator Drawn by Eleanor Catherine
Copyright © 2006
Scientific Name Sclerochiton ilicifolius A. Meeuse
Location South Africa
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
Copyright © 2006
About This Page


Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, California, USA

Carrie Kiel
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Lucinda A. McDade at and Carrie Kiel at

All Rights Reserved.

Citing this page:

McDade, Lucinda A. and Carrie Kiel. 2006. Sclerochiton. Version 13 September 2006 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Sclerochiton/52317/2006.09.13 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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