Common Name: DOGBANE FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, tree, often vine; sap generally milky. Leaf: simple, alternate, opposite, subwhorled to whorled, entire; stipules 0 or small, finger-like. Inflorescence: axillary or terminal, cyme, generally umbel- or raceme-like, or flowers 1--2. Flower: bisexual, radial; perianth parts, especially petals, overlapped, twisted to right or left, at least in bud; sepals generally 5, fused at base, often reflexed, persistent; petals generally 5, fused in basal +- 1/2; stamens generally 5, attached to corolla tube or throat, alternate lobes, free or fused to form filament column and anther head, filament column then generally with 5 free or fused, +- elaborate appendages abaxially, pollen +- free or removed in pairs of pollinia; nectaries 0 or near ovaries, then 2 or 5[10], or in stigmatic chambers; ovaries 2, superior or +- so, free [fused]; style tips, stigmas generally fused into massive pistil head. Fruit: 1--2 follicles, (capsule), [berry, drupe]. Seed: many, often with tuft of hairs at 1 or both ends. Genera In Family: 200--450 genera, 3000--5000 species: all continents, especially tropics, subtropical South America, southern Africa; many ornamental (including Asclepias, Hoya, Nerium, Plumeria, Stapelia); cardiac glycosides, produced by some members formerly treated in Asclepiadaceae, used as arrow poisons, in medicine to control heart function, and by various insects for defense. Note: Asclepiadaceae ("asclepiads"), although monophyletic, included in Apocynaceae because otherwise the latter is paraphyletic. Complexity of floral structure, variation in asclepiads arguably greatest among all angiosperms. Pattern of carpel fusion (carpels free in ovule-bearing region, fused above), present +- throughout Apocynaceae (in broad sense), nearly unknown in other angiosperms. Base chromosome number generally 11; abundance of latex, generally small size of chromosomes evidently have impeded cytological investigations. eFlora Treatment Author: Thomas J. Rosatti, except as noted Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin.
Habit: Perennial herb, erect, semi-woody. Leaf: alternate to subwhorled. Inflorescence: +- terminal, compound cyme. Flower: corolla salverform; filaments free, attached near top of corolla tube, unappendaged, anthers free from each other and stigma, pollen +- free; nectary 0 or a shallow ring around ovaries; style +- thread-like, stigma skirted at base. Seed: glabrous. Etymology: (John Amson, Virginia physician, 18th century) eFlora Treatment Author: Thomas J. Rosatti & Lauramay T. Dempster Unabridged Reference: McLaughlin 1982 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 69: 336--350
Amsonia tomentosa Torr. & Frém.
NATIVE Habit: Plant glabrous or gray-tomentose. Stem: several to many from woody crown, 16--36 cm, branches few to many. Leaf: 2--4 cm; petiole short or 0; blade ovate-lanceolate, acute at both ends. Flower: calyx lobes erect, thread-like above base; corolla +- white, blue, or +- green, tube +- 15 mm, inflated above middle, narrowed just below spreading lobes; style with spheric thickening just below stigma. Fruit: 3--8 cm, constricted between seeds, often breaking into 1-seeded segments. Chromosomes: 2n=22. Ecology: Desert plains, canyons; Elevation: 300--1800 m. Bioregional Distribution: SnBr (n slope), D; Distribution Outside California: to Utah. Flowering Time: Mar--May Note: Tomentose and glabrous plants (latter assignable to Amsonia brevifolia A. Gray) have identical ranges, do not intergrade, and show no other differences, suggesting hairiness is governed by a single gene. Synonyms: Amsonia brevifolia A. Gray; Amsonia tomentosa Torr. & Frém. var. tomentosa Jepson eFlora Author: Thomas J. Rosatti & Lauramay T. Dempster Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Amsonia Next taxon: Apocynum
Botanical illustration including Amsonia tomentosa
Citation for this treatment: Thomas J. Rosatti & Lauramay T. Dempster 2012, Amsonia tomentosa, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=13179, accessed on December 03, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on December 03, 2024.
MAP CONTROLS 1. You can change the display of the base map layer control box in the upper right-hand corner.
2. County and Jepson Region polygons can be turned off and on using the check boxes.
(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurrence).
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
READ ABOUT YELLOW FLAGS
CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).