Commelinales and Zingiberales Week: Commelinaceae: Callisia fragrans
Mayur Nandikar
Callisia fragrans (Lindl.) Woodson in Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 29(3): 154. 1942. Spironema fragrans Lindl. Edwards's Botanical Register 26: pl. 47. 1840. Rectanthera fragrans (Lindl.) O. Deg. Flora Hawaiensis 1: 62. 1932.
Herbs, perennial, robust, stoloniferous. Stems ascending, bromeliadlike, to 1 m. Leaves spirally arranged; blade oblong to lanceolate-oblong, 15--30 ´ 2.5--5cm (distal leaf blades much narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), apex acuminate, glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, panicles to 30 cm or longer. Flowers fragrant, subsessile; petals white, lanceolate, 6 mm; stamens 6, long-exserted, connectives white, broad, flaglike; filaments glabrous; ovary 3-locular, stigma penicillate. Capsules 3-locular.
Distribution: Introduced for its beautiful foliage or domestic use, nursery purposes not naturalized.
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Mr. Mayur D. Nandikar,
Research Student,
Department of Botany,
Shivaji University,
Kolhapur.
tanay bose
Department of Botany.
University of British Columbia .
3529-6270 University Blvd.
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 (Canada)
Phone: 778-323-4036 (Mobile)