Philippiella (plant)

Philippiella is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Thymelaeaceae.[1] It just contains one species, Philippiella patagonica Speg.[2]

Philippiella
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Thymelaeaceae
Genus: Philippiella
Speg.

Description

It is a sub-shrub,[3] or small shrub.[4][5] It is cushion forming,[4][5] and dioecious (having male and female reproductive structures which develop only on different plants).[5]

It has dense,[4] imbricate (tiled) and slightly fleshy leaves.[5] Which are arranged in opposite pairs, linear to obovate in shape, rigid and about 1.5 mm long.[4] It blooms in spring,[4] with solitary, terminal (at the ends of branches) flowers.[4][5] They are perigynous (borne around the ovary) and subsessile (not completely sessile, a plant stalk).[5] They are about 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) wide and greenish yellow in colour.[4] They have 4 sepals,[4][5] which are carnose (fleshy),[4] with ciliate (having small hairs) margins.[5] They also have 4 petals, which are filiform (thread-like in shape),[4] and it has 4 stamens which are episepalous (attached to the sepals). The anthers are monothecous (having a sole compartment or cell) and the ovary is 1 celled (uniovulate). The style has 2 clefts, The fruit (or seed capsule) dehiscing irregularly at base. Inside the seeds are ellipsoid and compressed.[5]

Taxonomy

The genus name of Philippiella is in honour of Rodolfo Amando Philippi (1808–1904), a German–Chilean paleontologist and zoologist.[6] The Latin specific epithet of patagonica refers to coming from Patagonia region. Both the genus and the species were first described and published in Revista Fac. Agron. Univ. Nac. La Plata vol.3 on page 566 in 1897.[2][3]

The species is recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS),[7] it is also recognised by United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service, but they do not list any known species.[8]

Distribution and habitat

It is native to southern Argentina and Chile.[2][9]

It grows on cold steppes, [4] at altitudes of 0–500 metres (0–1,640 ft) above sea level.[3]

Cultivation

It can be grown in a sunny, open site in poor, sandy soil or within an alpine house. New plants can be grown from seed in spring, in trays or pots with a thin layer of compost over the seed. Germination will take 1-3 months. Also propagation by cuttings in late summer, also works.[4]

References
  1. "Philippiella Speg. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. "Philippiella patagonica Speg. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  3. "Flora of the Southern Cone". www-darwin-edu-ar.translate.goog (in Spanish). Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  4. "Philippiella patagonica Speg". flora.kadel.cz. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  5. Klaus Kubitzki, Jens G. Rohwer and Volker Bittrich (Editors) The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, Flowering Plants · Dicotyledons: Magnoliid, Hamamelid and Caryophyllid Families (1993), p. 224, at Google Books
  6. Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  7. "Philippiella patagonica | /RHS Gardening". www.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  8. "Genus Philippiella Speg". npgsweb.ars-grin.gov. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  9. Andres Moreira-Munoz Plant Geography of Chile (2011), p. 318, at Google Books
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