Full name and orig. publication: Kaisupeea B.L.Burtt, Nordic J. Bot. 21(2): 116 (2001).
Etymology: The name is an amalgamation of the forenames of the Danish/Thailand botanists Kai and Supee Larsen.
Synonyms: -
Infrafamilial position: Didymocarpoid Gesneriaceae - "Advanced Asiatic and Malesian genera" (Weber 2004).
Description: Perennial herbs, stems annual-monocarpic, often with bladeless cataphylls at base. Indumentum of spreading gland-tipped hairs and sessile globular glands, eglandular hairs intermixed. Leaves opposite, petiole ill-defined, lamina obovate or obliquely elliptic-lanceolate, with short appressed acute hairs and globular glands. Cymes axillary, pedunculate. Sepals free almost to base. Corolla obliquely campanulate, held ± horizontally. Stamens 2, the anterior pair, filaments adnate to base of corolla tube, short, thick and curved so that the anthers meet, anther cells divaricate, back of connective hairy. Nectary annular, very small. Ovary ellipsoid-conical, studded with globular glands, with or without gland-tipped hairs intermixed; style glandular or glabrous; stigma capitate. Capsules pendent on decurved pedicels, loculicidally dehiscent, valves straight or twisted. Seeds reticulate, shortly pointed at each end.
Chromosome number: Unknown.
Species number: 3 [K. herbacea (C.B.Clarke) B.L.Burtt, K. cyanea B.L.Burtt, K. orthocarpa B.L.Burtt].
Species names (incl. publication and synonyms): See Skog, L.E. & J.K. Boggan. 2005: World checklist of Gesneriaceae: http://persoon.si.edu/Gesneriaceae/Checklist.
Type species: Kaisupeea herbacea (C.B.Clarke) B.L.Burtt
Distribution: Myanmar, Thailand, S Laos.
Ecology: No details available.
Notes: The genus is remarkable for the perennial habit with annual stems. „Kaisupeea herbacea dies down to the ground in the unfavourable season, and no new leaves appear above ground until favourable conditions return. Then there appear, not normal foliage leaves, but light green expanded leaf-bases, that have presumably been covering the new bud underground; this soon bursts through and produces a flowering stem whose leaves diminish quickly upwards as do the axillary inflorescences so that the whole forms a terminal thyrse about 0.5 m high. Details of this regime deserve study in the field.“ (Burtt 1998: 3).
Selected references: Burtt, in Methew & Sivadasan: Diversity and Taxonomy of tropical flowering plants. Pp. 1-27, Calicut: Mentor books (1998); Burtt, Nordic J. Bot. 21(2): 116 (2001), rev.
Bibliography: See Skog, L.E. & J.K. Boggan. 2005. Bibliography of the Gesneriaceae. 2nd edition: http://persoon.si.edu/Gesneriaceae/Bibliography.
Illustrations:
last modified: 2007-07-13