Muehlenbeckia

Contents:

Common name:                Maidenhair   

Conservation status:  ...

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

• The inflorescences may be terminal or axillary

• Are in the form of spikes or clusters, with at most very short peduncles (flowering stems)

• Individual flowers have pedicels (stalks)

• The flowers may be bisexual or unisexual, with sometimes a mixture of staminate, pistillate and bisexual flowers on the same plant

• There are five white to greenish white tepals, joined at the base

• Staminate flowers have 8 (sometimes 9) stamens and a rudimentary pistil

• Pistillate flowers have rudimentary stamens and three spreading styles

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is in the form of a black or dark brown unwinged achene,

• Three-sided to more or less globe-shaped, at least partly enclosed by the persistent tepals

Leaves:         

• Their leaves are arranged alternately on the stem

• Usually with stalks (petioles), but sometimes stalkless (sessile)

• The brownish ocrea is short and tubular, soon disintegrating.

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Species vary considerably in their growth habits

• They may be perennials, vinelike, or shrubs

• All have rhizomatous roots. 

Habitat:   

Distribution:                  

• It is native to the borders of the Pacific, including South and North America, Papua New Guinea and Australasia

  • Australasia: ACT, NSW, Norfolk Island, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, WA

  • New Zealand: Chatham Islands, New Zealand North, New Zealand South

  • Papuasia: New Guinea

  • Neotropic: Central America: Honduras, Southern South America: Chile

Species:                     

• World:           

• Australia:     

Additional notes:     

• Muehlenbeckia or maidenhair is a genus of flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae. I It has been introduced elsewhere, including Europe.[1] Species vary in their growth habits, many being vines or shrubs. In some environments, rampant species can become weedy and difficult to eradicate.

• Taxonomy

  • The genus was erected by Carl Meissner in 1841, initially for two species that he distinguished from Coccoloba and Polygonum

  • The generic name honours Alsatian bryologist Heinrich Gustav Mühlenbeck (1798–1845)

  • Muehlenbeckia is placed in the tribe Polygoneae of the subfamily Polygonoideae. Within the tribe, it is most closely related to the genera Reynoutria and Fallopia s.s., forming the so-called "RMF clade"