Briggsiopsis

Full name and orig. publication: : Briggsiopsis K.Y.Pan, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 23: 216 (June 1985).

Etymology: Composed of the generic name Briggsia and the Greek suffix -όψις, -opsis = looking like, similar to.

Synonyms: -

Infrafamilial position: Didymocarpoid Gesneriaceae - "Advanced Asiatic and Malesian genera" (Weber 2004).

Description: Perennial rosette herbs. Leaves petiolate, lamina ovate to suborbicular, pubescent on both surfaces, entire or repand. Cymes axillary, long-pedunculate, 1- to few-flowered. Sepals nearly free to base, linear-lanceolate. Corolla infundibuliform, white, with purple streaks inside, limb bilabiate, lobes rounded. Stamens 4, didynamous; filaments inserted at middle of corolla tube; anthers cohering in pairs at the apex. Nectary annular, deeply 5-lobed. Ovary oblong, 2-locular, one locule fertile, with axile placentation, the other sterile, without placentae; style long; stigma bilobed. Capsule oblong, oblique, loculicidally dehiscent.

Chromosome number: Unknown.

Type and only species: Briggsiopsis delavayi (Franch.) K.Y.Pan

Species names (incl. publication and synonyms): See Skog, L.E. & J.K. Boggan. 2005: World checklist of Gesneriaceae: http://persoon.si.edu/Gesneriaceae/Checklist.

Distribution: S China (C & S Sichuan, NE Yunnan, Guizhou). 

Ecology: Growing in forests, at stream sides and on rocks in shady places, 250-1500m.

Notes: The single species was originally described in Didissandra and later transferred to Briggsia. Pan (1985) discovered that only the upper (adaxial) carpel was fertile and that the ovary is bilocular, with the lower locule being reduced in size and empty. Otherwise the flowers are as in Briggsia.

Selected references: W.T.Wang et al. in Wu & Raven (eds.), Fl. China 18: 280-281 (1998); Y.Z.Wang & Gu, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 37: 137-142 (1999), karyol.

Bibliography: See Skog, L.E.

Bibliography: amp; J.K. Boggan. 2005. Bibliography of the Gesneriaceae. 2^nd edition: http://persoon.si.edu/Gesneriaceae/Bibliography.

Illustrations:

Briggsiopsis delavayi  (Franch.) K.Y.Pan, type and only species Ying T.S. et al.: The endemic genera of seed plants of China, Fig. 105 (1993); with permission.

Briggsiopsis delavayi  (Franch.) K.Y.Pan, type and only species Li Z.Y & Wang Y.Z., Plants of Gesneriaceae in China, Figs. 1.58 (2004); with permission.

last modified: 2007-07-13