Lavatera phoenicea
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| Lavatera phoenicea | ||||||||||||||
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 Lavatera phoenicea flowers
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| Lavatera phoenicea Vent. |
Lavatera phoenicea (syn. Althaea phoenicea Kuntze [1], Lavatera coccinea Dietr. ex DC and Navaea phoenicea Webb. [2]) is a large shrub belonging to the family Malvaceae and tribe Malveae. Webb and Berthelot included this plant in the separate, monotypic genus Navaea, dedicated to Marqués de Nava, the one who created the botanical garden in Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife (Jardín de Aclimatación de la Orotava). The reason to include this species in a separate genus was according the presence of nectaries in the base of each petal, which is unique in the Malveae tribe. In addition, this plant is endemic to the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands). Published studies (and some recent others not published yet) using molecular markers (chloroplast and ITS sequences) support this separation, as phylogenetic trees show L. phoenicea in a basal position in relation to the rest of Lavatera-Malva complex, and thus, as a palaeoendemic taxa. This plant presents a clear bird pollination syndrome, a phenomenon shared with another 12 Macaronesian endemics (genus Muschia, Lotus, Isoplexis, Canarina, Echium and Scrophularia). This bird pollination syndrome is pretty rare in these lattitudes and seems to have independent origins according to phylogenies of each lineage.
L. phoenicea is very rare and it is threatened. It only grows in northern cliffs in the ancient zones of Anaga and Teno mountains.
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