Ambrosina

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Monocots
Ordo: Alismatales

Familia: Araceae
Subfamilia: Aroideae
Tribus: Ambrosineae
Genus: Ambrosina
Species: A. bassii
Name

Ambrosina Bassi, Ambrosina: 1. 1763.

monotypic taxon

References

Bassi, F. 1763. Ambrosina Nov. Pl. Gen. 3. ; vide Dandy, Ind. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 1753-74 (Regn. Veg. li.) 26 (1967)
Geraci, A., Raimondo, F.M. & Troia, A. 2009. Genetic diversity and local population structure in Ambrosina bassii (Araceae, Ambrosineae), a Mediterranean relict species. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 37(6): 737–746. DOI: 10.1016/j.bse.2009.12.002. PDF on ResearchGate.
Troia, A., Raimondo, F.M. & Geraci, A. 2012. Does genetic population structure of Ambrosina bassii L. (Araceae, Ambrosineae) attest a post-Messinian land-bridge between Sicily and Africa? Flora - Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants 207(9): 646–653, DOI: 10.1016/j.flora.2012.06.017.. PDF on ResearchGate
Govaerts, R. et al. 2014. Ambrosina in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2014 Nov. 11. Reference page.
Tropicos.org 2014. Ambrosina. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 11 Nov. 2014.
International Plant Names Index. 2014. Ambrosina. Published online. Accessed: Nov. 11 2014.

Ambrosina is a genus in the family Araceae that consists of only one species, Ambrosina bassii, and the only genus in the tribe Ambrosineae. This species is the smallest aroid in the Mediterranean, growing only to 8 cm tall. It is usually found growing in woodlands on north faces of hillsides and in humus soil that is covering limestone. It is distributed in Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, southern mainland Italy, Tunisia, and Algeria.[1][2][3]

Ambrosina bassii has oval leaves that are 3.5 to 6 cm long and resemble the leaves of many aroid seedlings. The inflorescence is 2.5 cm long bent over and has an unusual spathe. The spathe is shaped like an egg and is greenish brown with dots on it. Inside the egg shaped spathe is divided two chambers. In one chamber is contained a single female flower and in the other are 8 to 10 male flowers. The seeds are dispersed by ants that eat the elaiosomes attached to the seeds.[4]
Description

Ambrosina is the only representative of its genus and is quite unique. It has been shown that it has high heterozygosity, as it has an average of two loci per allele. The data represents that genetic variation attributes to differences among populations from different geographical territories. Also, the local anthropogenic fragmentation has caused no time for genetic drift or interbreeding to erode genetic variation, this eventually resulted in generating differences between populations.[5]
References

Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
Govaerts, R. & Frodin, D.G. (2002). World Checklist and Bibliography of Araceae (and Acoraceae): 1-560. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Dobignard, D. & Chatelain, C. (2010). Index synonymique de la flore d'Afrique du nord 1: 1-455. Éditions des conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Genève.
Bown, Deni (2000). Aroids: Plants of the Arum Family. Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-485-7.
Geraci, Anna; Raimondo, Francesco Maria; Troia, Angelo (2009-12-01). "Genetic diversity and local population structure in Ambrosina bassii (Araceae, Ambrosineae), a Mediterranean relict species". Biochemical Systematics and Ecology. 37 (6): 737–746. doi:10.1016/j.bse.2009.12.002. ISSN 0305-1978.