Volkameria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. It is pantropical in distribution.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant FamiliesYao-Wu Yuan, David J. Mabberley, Dorothy A. Steane, and Richard G. Olmstead. 2010. "Further disintegration and redefinition of Clerodendrum (Lamiaceae): Implications for the understanding of the evolution of an intriguing breeding strategy". Taxon 59(1):125-133. Many of the species are found in coastal habitats.
The species of Volkameria are mostly shrubs, sometimes subshrubs or lianas, rarely small trees. The stems have swollen nodes. The flowers are usually fragrant. The fruit matures black or brown, separating into four corky pyrenes.
Volkameria aculeata and Volkameria glabra are grown as ornamentals in the tropics.George W. Staples and Derral R. Herbst "A Tropical Garden Flora" Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu (2005) Volkameria heterophylla is also known in cultivation.Anthony J. Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (editors). 1992. The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. The Macmillan Press Limited, London; The Stockton Press, New York. Volkameria inermis is planted as a sand binder.David J. Mabberley. 2008. Mabberley's Plant-Book third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK.
Taxonomy Volkameria was originally named (as "Volcameria") by German botanist Lorenz Heister in Index plantarum rariorum (1730), the name subsequently being adopted by Swedish scientist Carl LinnaeusCarolus Linnaeus. 1737. Critica Botanica page 95 and validly published in his Species Plantarum (1753).Volkameria page 637. In: Carolus Linnaeus. 1753. Species Plantarum volume 2. Laurentii Salvii. Heister named the genus after the German botanist Johann Georg Volckamer the Younger (1662-1744),Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume IV, page 2809. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC, USA. London, UK. (set). (see External links below). who had described the plant in his Flora Noribergensis (1700).
In 1895, John Isaac Briquet defined the genus Clerodendrum broadly, to include all of those species now placed in Rotheca, Clerodendrum, Volkameria, and Ovieda.John Isaac Briquet. 1895. "Clerodendrum" pages 174-176. In: "Verbenaceae" pages 132-182. In: Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien volume IV, part 3a. Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann: Leipzig, Germany. This was considered questionable by many, but for the next 100 years, Briquet's circumscription was usually followed, mostly because of confusion and uncertainty regarding this group of at least 200 species.
In 2010, a molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences showed that most of the Clerodendrum species that had been in Volkameria were more closely related to Aegiphila, Ovieda, Tetraclea, and Amasonia than to other species of Clerodendrum. (See the phylogenetic tree at Lamiaceae). Following these results, Volkameria was reinstated. Some species that had been erroneously placed in Volkameria were excluded. Some of the poorly known species in Clerodendrum might still need to be transferred to Volkameria.
Species The following species are recognised in the genus Volkameria: Volkameria acerbiana Vis. - northeastern Africa from Egypt to Tanzania and west to Chad; also Guinea-Bissau + Gambia in West Africa Volkameria aculeata L. - West Indies, northern South America, Honduras, Veracruz State in eastern Mexico Volkameria aggregata (Gürke) Mabb. & Y.W.Yuan - Madagascar Volkameria glabra (E.Mey.) Mabb. & Y.W.Yuan - western + southern Africa from South Africa to Somalia; Seychelles, Comoros Volkameria heterophylla Poir. - Mauritius, Réunion; naturalized in India, Madagascar, Australia Volkameria inermis L. - China, Indian Subcontinent, Australia, Pacific Islands Volkameria ligustrina Jacq. - Mexico, Central America Volkameria linifolia (Ewart & B.Rees) Mabb. & Y.W.Yuan - Australia (Northern Territory) Volkameria mollis (Kunth) Mabb. & Y.W.Yuan - Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Galápagos Volkameria pittieri (Moldenke) Mabb. & Y.W.Yuan - Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador
Gallery
References
External links Volkameria At:Index Nominum Genericorum At: References At: NMNH Department of Botany Volkameria In: volume 2 Of: Species Plantarum At: Biodiversity Heritage Library CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: R-Z At: Botany & Plant Science At: Life Science At: CRC Press