Astianthus
| Astianthus | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Bignoniaceae |
| Genus: |
Astianthus D.Don 1823 |
| Species: | A. viminalis |
| Binomial name | |
|
Astianthus viminalis (Kunth)Baill. |
|
| Type species | |
|
Astianthus longifolius D.Don |
|
Astianthus is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the Bignoniaceae family. The sole species is Astianthus viminalis. It is known by the common names achuchil in Mexico and chilca in Guatemala and Honduras.
Astianthus is native to Mesoamerica, from southern Mexico to Nicaragua. It is a shrub, or if larger, a tree of varying height, occurring mostly along streambanks from sea level to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in elevation. Its leaves are unusually long and slender, resembling those of a willow, possibly because it is a rheophyte.
The following description is excerpted from one that appeared in Flora Neotropica.
The genus Astianthus was erected by David Don in 1823, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. Don named its sole species Astianthus longifolia. He was apparently unaware that Karl Sigismund Kunth had previously named this species Bignonia viminalis in 1819. (The authority for this name is often cited as "HBK" instead of "Kunth". It is not clear why Alwyn Howard Gentry gives the date of the name as 1819.)
William Hemsley transferred this species to Tecoma as T. viminalis in 1882, recognizing that the specific epithet of Kunth had priority over that of Don by the rules of botanical nomenclature.
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Wikipedia