Bessera

Bessera is a genus of Mexican plants in the cluster lily subfamily within the asparagus family.[4][5] It is a small genus of 3 known species of mostly herbaceous flowering plants with corms.[3] They have flowers with petals and petaloid sepals (tepals) with compound pistils.

Bessera
Bessera elegans
1839 illustration[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Brodiaeoideae
Genus: Bessera
Schult.f. 1829, conserved name not Schult. 1809 (Boraginaceae) nor Spreng. 1815 (Putranjivaceae) nor Vell. 1825 (Nyctaginaceae)[2]
Synonyms[3]
  • Pharium Herb.
  • Behria Greene

The genus is named for Austrian and Russian botanist Wilibald Swibert Joseph Gottlieb von Besser (1784–1842).

Bessera elegans, called coral drops, is cultivated and is a half-hardy Mexican herbaceous plant growing from corms with drooping terminal umbels of showy red-and-white colored flowers.

Taxonomy

Species

Current species include:[3]

  1. Bessera elegans Schult.f. — central to southern Mexico.
  2. Bessera tenuiflora (Greene) J.F.Macbr.Baja California Sur state, including the southern Baja California Peninsula and Gulf of California islands; and the coastal region of mainland Northwestern Mexico.
  3. Bessera tuitensis R.Delgad.Jalisco state in coastal southwestern Mexico.

Former species

Some plants formerly classified as Bessera species have been reclassified under other genera, which include: Androstephium, Drypetes, Flueggea, Guapira, and Pulmonaria.
Former species include:[2][3]

References

  1. Edwards's Botanical Register; Consisting of Coloured Figures of Exotic Plants Cultivated in British Gardens; with their History and Mode of Treatment. London 25: t. 34 (1839). sulivanica
  2. Tropicos, search for Bessera
  3. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  4. Stevens, P.F., Angiosperm Phylogeny Website: Asparagales: Brodiaeoideae
  5. Govaerts, R. (1996). World Checklist of Seed Plants 2(1, 2): 1-492. Continental Publishing, Deurne.


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