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Brillantaisia owariensis P.Beauv. [family ACANTHACEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (2008) Author: Kaj Vollesen
Names
Brillantaisia owariensis P.Beauv. [family ACANTHACEAE], in Fl. Owar. 2: 68, t. 100, fig. 2 (1818); Bentham in Hook., Niger Fl.: 477 (1849); Hooker, Bot. Mag.: t. 4717 (1853), excl. fruit; Engler in E.J. 8: 65 (1887); Th. Durand & Schinz, Etud. Fl. Congo 1: 217 (1896); Burkill in F.T.A. 5: 40 (1899); Benoist in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 60: 335 (1913); F.W.T.A. 2: 254 (1931); Heine in F.W.T.A. ed. 2, 2: 406 (1963); U.K.W.F. ed. 2: 267 (1994); Lebrun & Stork, Enum. Pl. Afr. Trop. 4: 475 (1997); Sidwell in Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. London 28: 90 (1998); Friis & Vollesen in Biol. Skr. 51(2): 439 (2005). Type: Nigeria, Benin, Agathon, Palisot de Beauvois s.n. (P, holo.) Belantheria belvisiana Nees [family ], in DC., Prodr. 11: 96 (1847). Type: as for B. owariensis Brillantaisia patula T.Anderson [family ACANTHACEAE], in J.L.S. 7: 21 (1863); Burkill in F.T.A. 5: 41 (1899); Benoist in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 60: 335 (1913); F.W.T.A. 2: 254 (1931); Exell, Cat. Vasc. Pl. Sao Tomé: 260 (1944); F.P.N.A. 2: 269 (1947); Heine in F.W.T.A. ed. 2, 2: 406 (1963) & in Fl. Gabon 13: 94, pl. 19, fig.1–6 (1966). Type: “Congo”, Smith s.n. (K!, holo.; P!, iso.) Brillantaisia alata Oliv. [family ACANTHACEAE], in Trans. Linn. Soc. 29: 125, t. 124 (1875); S. Moore in J.B. 18: 197 (1880); Th. Dur. & Schinz, Etud. Fl. Congo 1: 216 (1896); Durand & De Wild. in Comp. Soc. Bot. Belg. 36: 83 (1897). Type: Uganda, Bunyoro [Unyoro], Speke & Grant 583 (K!, holo.) Brillantaisia nitens Lindau [family ACANTHACEAE], in E.J. 17: 102 (1893); Burkill in F.T.A. 5: 41 (1899); Lindau in Z.A.E.: 292 (1911); Benoist in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 60: 336 (1913); F.W.T.A. 2: 254 (1931); F.P.N.A. 2: 270 (1947); Heine in F.W.T.A., ed. 2, 2: 406 (1963); Champluvier in Fl. Rwanda 3: 448 (1985); Blundell, Wild Fl. E. Afr.: 389, pl. 849 (1987). Type: Cameroon, W of Buea, Preuss 847 (B†, holo.; K!, iso.) Brillantaisia dewevrei De Wild. & T.Durand [family ACANTHACEAE], in Compt. Rend. Soc. Bot. Belg. 38: 45 (1899); C.B. Clarke in F.T.A. 5: 510 (1900). Type: Congo-Kinshasa, between Loukolela and N’Gombi, Dewevre 751 (BR!, holo.; BR!, iso.) Brillantaisia nyanzarum Burkill [family ACANTHACEAE], in F.T.A. 5: 39 (1899); F.P.N.A. 2: 272 (1947); F.P.S. 3: 171 (1956); U.K.W.F.: 583 & 584 (1974); Synnott, Checklist Budongo Forest Reserve (C.F.I. Occ. Papers 27): 68 (1985). Type: Kenya, ‘Kavirondo’, Scott Elliot 6999 (K!, holo.) Brillantaisia mahonii C.B.Clarke [family ACANTHACEAE], in K.B. 1906: 251 (1906); S. Moore in J.B. 45: 89 (1907); Lind & Tallantire, Common Fl. Pl. Uganda: 140, fig. 82 (1962). Type: Uganda, Mengo District: Entebbe, Mahon s.n. (K!, holo.)
Information
Perennial or shrubby herb, usually glandular and sticky; stems up to 2 m tall, erect or rooting at base, glabrous to crisped-puberulous, sometimes also with long pilose hairs. Leaves with petiole up to 14(–17) cm long; lamina ovate-cordiform or broadly so, largest 11–28≈6–20 cm, apex acuminate, sometimes drawn out into a short obtuse tip, base cuneate to cordate, margin regularly to irregularly and sometimes grossly crenate-dentate (rarely subentire), glabrous to densely crisped-puberulous on veins, glabrous to sparsely puberulous on lamina. Panicle from very lax to narrow and contracted, (5–)10–45 cm long, finely puberulous and with usually dense broad glandular hairs, often also with long pilose hairs; primary bracts green to purplish, ovate to elliptic or obovate, from leaf-size to 10≈3 mm near apex, finely puberulous and with long pilose hairs, towards apex with stalked capitate glands; secondary bracts lanceolate to elliptic, 5–18≈2–5 mm; pedicels 0.5–7(–11) mm long. Calyx dark purple, with dense capitate glands, ± puberulous hairs and ± scattered pilose hairs; lobes linear-lanceolate, tapering gradually to distinctly spathulate, ventral and lateral (8–)12–19 mm long, dorsal (10–)14–21 mm long. Corolla pale to deep mauve, pale to deep purple or blue to dark blue with white throat, (25–)30–53 mm long, with purple to dark purple glandular hairs; tube 7–14 mm long; lower lip 20–38 mm long, lobes 2–5 mm long, ovate, subacute (lateral) or rounded. Filaments and style white; anthers black, (5–)6–9(–11) mm long, hairy along connective; staminodes filiform, 10–15 mm long, widened apically. Capsule (17–)20–35 mm long, the valves 2–3 mm wide, glandular-puberulous and usually with longer non-glandular hairs. Seed ± 1.5 mm long.
Range
DISTR. U 1–4; K 3, 5; T 1, 4 widespread in the forest regions of West and Central Africa, east to SE Sudan and south to N Angola
Altitude range
(750–)900–1850 m
Distribution
KENYA Uasin Gishu District Kipkarren, Dec. 1933, Dale 3208!KENYA North Kavirondo District W of Kimilili, Sep. 1958, Tweedie 1707! & Malaba Forest, March 1967, Tweedie 3413!TANZANIA Bukoba District Minziro Forest, 3 July 1958, Willan 331!TANZANIA Mpanda District W of Kasangazi, Lubugwe River, 26 July 1958, Juniper et al. 256! & Kungwe-Mahali Peninsula, NW slopes of Musenabantu, 12 Aug. 1959, Harley 9302!UGANDA West Nile District Agoro, Eggeling 798!UGANDA Mengo District Entebbe, Nov. 1930, Snowden 1847! & Kampala, Oct. 1904, E. Brown 103!
Notes
There seems no way of separating the multitude of forms which have been united under this species. This is the most widespread species in Brillantaisia and also by far the most variable. It especially seems to have an enormous range of leaf-shapes and -dentations, and these have been widely used to separate species. But over the total range of the species they all merge together. Forms with very open inflorescences and very large flowers have traditionally been separated out as B. patula, but again they merge into typical forms. See also under B. lamium. B. owariensis has been grown as an ornamental in Nairobi and occasionally within its natural range in Uganda.
Brillantaisia owariensis P.Beauv. [family ACANTHACEAE]
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