Philotheca is a genus of about fifty species of flowering plants in the familyRutaceae. Plants in this genus are shrubs with simple leaves arranged alternately along the stems, flowers that usually have five sepals, five petals and ten stamens that curve inwards over the ovary. All species are endemic to Australia and there are species in every state, but not the Northern Territory.
Description
Plants in the genus Philotheca are shrubs that are either glabrous or have tiny, simple hairs. The leaves are arranged alternately along the stems, narrow oblong to almost cylindrical and sessile or on a very short petiole. From a single to many flowers are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of the branchlets. The flowers have five sepals and five petals (except in P. virgata which has four). The sepals are free from each other and the petals usually overlap at their bases. There are ten stamens that curve inwards over the ovary with anthers that have an appendage called the "apiculum". The ovary contains five carpels fused near their bases. The seeds are 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) long and are released explosively from their capsule.[2][3][4][5]
The name Philotheca should have been written Psilotheca after the Ancient Greek words psilos meaning "bare", "smooth", "bald" or "naked"[9]: 123 and theke meaning "case", "container", "envelope" or "sheath",[9]: 118 referring to "the smooth tube of the stamens".[10]
Many plants formerly in Eriostemon are now in this genus.[11]
Distribution
Plants in the genus Philotheca are found in every state of Australia, but not in the Northern Territory.[4]
^ abBrown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
^Craig, John (1849). A New Universal Etymological and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language embracing all the terms used in art, science and literature. London: Henry George Collins.