Haptanthus
| Haptanthus | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Tree from re-discovery in 2010 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Buxales |
| Family: | Buxaceae |
| Genus: |
Haptanthus Goldberg & C.Nelson |
| Species: | H. hazlettii |
| Binomial name | |
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Haptanthus hazlettii Goldberg & C.Nelson |
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Haptanthus is a monotypic genus containing the sole species Haptanthus hazlettii, a shrub or small tree known only from the locality of Matarras in the Arizona Municipality in Honduras. Its flowers are unique among the flowering plants. A single "female" (carpellate) flower has two branches on either side which carry "male" (staminate) flowers. The flowers are very simple, lacking obvious sepals or petals. The family placement of the genus has been uncertain, but based on molecular phylogenetic research, it is included in the family Buxaceae as of September 2014[update]. Very few individuals have ever been found and its habitat is threatened by logging.
Haptanthus hazlettii is a shrub or tree. It has opposite leaves spaced at 5.5–6.0 cm apart, usually arranged in two ranks (distichous). The leaves are simple with untoothed (entire) margins. There are no stipules. The leaf stalk (petiole) is short, 7–8 mm long, the leaf blade (lamina) 10–13.5 cm long by 4.1–5.6 cm wide. The entire plant is hairless (glabrous).
The flowers are unisexual, carried on the same inflorescence (i.e. the plant is monoecious). One (or occasionally two) inflorescences emerge from a leaf axil, with at least five inflorescence-bearing axils per fertile branch. The inflorescences have a unique structure among flowering plants. In the centre there is a single carpellate ("female") flower. This lacks obvious petals or sepals (although there are small bracts below the flower which some researchers have suggested may be the remnants of the perianth), and consists solely of a single-celled (unilocular) ovary, 5 mm long by 2 mm wide, surmounted by three curved 4 mm long stigmas. On either side of the solitary carpellate flower there are two branches each with five or six staminate ("male") flowers arranged at 1–3 mm intervals.
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Wikipedia