Ayenia saligna (Sterculiaceae), a New Species from Colombia

The Phylogeny of Ayenia, Byttneria, and Rayleya (Malvaceae s. l.) and its Implications for the Evolution of Growth Forms

“…Byttneria morii and B. schunkei appear to be together a relatively basal lineage within the Ayenia/Byttneria/Rayleya clade. Relationships of A. praeclarae are unresolved; however, a basal position within the Ayenia clade is supported by the presence of foliar nectaries, a trait found in all sections of Byttneria but limited to seven species in Ayenia, ( Cristóbal and Arbo 1971 ;Cristóbal et al 1992 ;Dorr 1996 ). The other arborescent species of Ayenia , A. stipularis, also has foliar nectaries and is hypothesized to be closely related to A. praeclarae ( Cristóbal et al 1992 ).…”

“…The two genera also differ in the degree of constriction of the petal claw: in Ayenia, the petal is narrow for most of its length, whereas in Byttneria the petal is narrow at the base but expands in width as it meets the staminal column. Petals in Byttneria species generally have prominent ligules or projecting appendages (see Dorr 1996 for a discussion of the terminology) on the abaxial surface where the petals rejoin the staminal column. Similar appendages occur in some Ayenia species but are usually inconspicuous.…”

“…The complexity of petal form has proven challenging to describe and common terminology such as "claw" and "lamina" may be applied differently by different authors (see Dorr 1996 and references therein). We follow the terminology of Dorr (1996) and use "claw" to refer to the narrow base of the petal, from the point of insertion to where it rejoins the staminal column. The morphology of the flowers, their reddish or purplish coloration, small size, and the fetid odor reported from some species ( Cristóbal 1960( Cristóbal , 1976 are all generally associated with fly pollination ( Faegri and van der Pijl 1971 ) although pollination biology has apparently not been studied in these species.…”

A synopsis of Byttnerieae (Malvaceae, Byttnerioideae) from the Atlantic Forest, with notes on geographical distribution, nomenclature, and conservation

“…5). In fact, morphological definitions of different portions of an unguiculate petal in Ayenia and Byttneria can bear terminological inconsistencies, as pointed out by Dorr (1996) and Whitlock et al (2001). Herein, we chose not to integrate these definitions, and maintained each specific terminology for each genus, following Cristóbal (1960;1976) monographs separately.…”

“…Species descriptions emphasized vegetative features, especially in Byttneria, as they are expressive and practical to distinguish when identifying collected specimens. We followed Cristóbal (1976) and Dorr (1996) terminologies of inflorescence and flower morphology, as well as their concepts of leaf nectaries. Terminologies of leaf size, shape and venation were based on Ellis et al (2009).…”