Dombeya
Encyclopedia
- Dombeya of L'Héritier de BrutelleCharles Louis L'Héritier de BrutelleCharles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle was an 18th century French botanist and magistrate. Born into an affluent upper-class Parisian family, connections with the French Royal Court secured him the position of Superindent of Parisian Waters and Forests at the age of twenty-six...
is a synonym of Tourrettia (BignoniaceaeBignoniaceaeThe Bignoniaceae, or Trumpet Creeper Family, is a family of flowering plants comprising about 650-750 species in 116-120 genera. Members of the family are mostly trees and lianas , shrubs and more rarely herbaceous plants. As climber plants, they are twine climbers or tendril climbers, and rarely...
). Dombeya of LamarckJean-Baptiste LamarckJean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck , often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist...
is a synonym of AraucariaAraucariaAraucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 19 extant species in the genus, with a highly disjunct distribution in New Caledonia , Norfolk Island, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Chile, and southern Brazil.-Description:Araucaria are mainly...
.
Dombeya is a flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
. Traditionally included in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Sterculiaceae
Sterculiaceae
Sterculiaceae is a botanical name for a group of flowering plants at the rank of family, which is now considered obsolete. As is true for any botanical name, the circumscription, status and placement of the taxon has varied with taxonomic point of view...
, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae
Malvaceae
Malvaceae, or the mallow family, is a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Judd & al. Well known members of this family include okra, jute and cacao...
in the APG
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, or APG, refers to an informal international group of systematic botanists who came together to try to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants that would reflect new knowledge about plant relationships discovered through phylogenetic studies., three...
and most subsequent systematics. These plants are known by a number of vernacular names which sometimes, misleadingly, allude to the superficial similarity of flowering Dombeya to pear
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
s or hydrangea
Hydrangea
Hydrangea is a genus of about 70 to 75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia and North and South America. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea...
s (which are quite unrelated dicots). Therefore, the genus as a whole is often simply called dombeyas. The generic name commemorates Joseph Dombey
Joseph Dombey
Joseph Dombey was a French botanist. He was involved in the “Dombey affair” which was precipitated by British seizure of a vessel his collections were on and diversion of the collections to the British Museum.-Biography:He ran away from home and acquired a thorough knowledge of botany in...
(1742–1794), a French botanist and explorer in South America, involved in the notorious Dombey affair, embroiling scientists and governments of France, Spain, and England for more than two years.
These plants grow chiefly throughout Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. Formerly believed to hold only about 80 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, in the present delimitation, Dombeya is one of the most speciose Malvaceae genera, containing some 255 species. Most have been moved here from distinct genera, which are now considered junior synonyms. Some of these might warrant recognition as subgenera, to show the evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
ary and phylogenetic patterns of the numerous dombeyas more clearly. In addition to the synonyms listed here, Astiria is suspected to be a rather distinct derivative of Dombeya and would thus have to be included in the present genus. This requires renaming of species, as A. rosea conflicts with D. rosea, a junior synonym of D. burgessiae. Furthermore, several species have been moved here from related genera that are still valid, namely Pentapetes.
Selected species
- Dombeya acerifolia Baker (= D. acerifolia var. typica Hochr.)
- Dombeya acutangulaDombeya acutangulaThe Bois Bete or mahot tantan is a flowering plant species found only in Mauritius and Réunion. Formerly placed in the Sterculiaceae, this artificial assemblage is now included in the family Malvaceae by most authors....
– Bois Bete, mahot tantan - Dombeya aethiopicaDombeya aethiopicaDombeya aethiopica is a species of flowering plant in the Sterculiaceae family.It is found only in Ethiopia.-Source:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 19 July 2007....
- Dombeya amaniensisDombeya amaniensisDombeya amaniensis is a flowering plant species found only in Tanzania. Formerly placed in the Sterculiaceae, this artificial assemblage is now included in the family Malvaceae by most authors....
- Dombeya autumnalis I.Verd.
- Dombeya blattiolens Frapp.
- Dombeya boehmiana (= Vincentia boehmiana (F.Hoffm.) Burret)
- Dombeya burgessiae Gerr. ex Harv. (= D. greenwayi Wild, D. mastersii Hook.f., D. parvifolia K.Schum., D. rosea E.G.Baker, D. tanganyikensis Baker)
- Dombeya cacuminum Hochr.
- Dombeya ciliata Cordem.
- Dombeya coria Baill.
- Dombeya cymosa Harv.
- Dombeya decanthera Cav. (= D. bojeriana Baill., Melhania decanthera (Cav.) DC)
- Dombeya delislei Arènes
- Dombeya elegans Cordem. – sometimes included in D. burgessiae
- Dombeya ferruginea Cav. (= Pentapetes ferruginea Poir.)
- Dombeya ferruginea ssp. borbonica F.Friedmann
- Dombeya ferruginea ssp. ferruginea
- Dombeya ficulnea Baill. – sometimes erroneously included in D. punctata
- Dombeya glandulosissima Arènes
- Dombeya kirkii Mast.
- Dombeya laurifolia (Bojer) Baill. (= D. parkeri Baill., D. valimpony R.Vig. & Humbert, D. valimpony f. obovalopsis Hochr., Melhania laurifolia Bojer)
- Dombeya leandrii Arènes
- Dombeya ledermanniiDombeya ledermanniiDombeya ledermannii is a species of flowering plant in the Sterculiaceae family.It is found in Cameroon and Nigeria.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests.It is threatened by habitat loss.-References:...
- Dombeya longebracteolataDombeya longebracteolataDombeya longebracteolata is a species of flowering plant in the Sterculiaceae family.It is found only in Ethiopia.-Source:* World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1998. . Downloaded on 19 July 2007....
- Dombeya macrantha Baker
- Dombeya mauritiana F.Friedmann
- Dombeya montana (Hochr.) Arènes (= D. acerifolia var. montana Hochr.)
- Dombeya natalensis Sond.
- Dombeya palmatisecta Hochr.
- Dombeya pilosa Cordem.
- Dombeya populnea Baill. (= Pentapetes populnea Poir.)
- Dombeya pulchra N.E.Br.
- Dombeya punctata Cav. (= D. lancea Cordem., D. pervillei Baill., Pentapetes punctata Poir.)
- Dombeya reclinata Cordem.
- Dombeya rodriguesiana F.Friedmann
- Dombeya rottleroides Baill.
- Dombeya rotundifoliaDombeya rotundifoliaDombeya rotundifolia, Dikbas or "South African Wild Pear" , is a small deciduous tree with dark grey to blackish deeply fissured bark, found in Southern Africa and northwards to central and eastern tropical Africa...
Planch. – Dikbas, "South African Wild Pear" - Dombeya shupangae K.Schum.
- Dombeya spectabilis Bojer (= D. chapelieri Baill., D. humblotii Baill., D. lantziana Baill., D. rotundifolia Bojer)
- Dombeya tiliacea (Endl.) Planch. (= Xeropetalum tiliaceum Endl.)
- Dombeya tsaratananensis (Hochr.) Arènes (= D. ficulnea var. tsaratananensis Hochr.)
- Dombeya umbellata Cav. (= Pentapetes umbellata Poir.)
- Dombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichii is a flowering shrub of the genus Dombeya, sometimes called the Pink-ball.Native to Madagascar.The flowers are fragrant, smelling like coconut....
Benth. et Hook.f. (= Astrapaea wallichii Lindl.) – Pink-ball, "Tropical Hydrangea"
External links
- malvaceae.info: Dombeya gallery. Retrieved 2008-JUN-25.