40. Zenobia D. Don, Edinburgh New Philos. J. 17: 158. 1834.
[For Zenobia, third-century queen of Palmyra, a city-state in Syria]
Laurence J. Dorr
Shrubs, (glabrous, often glaucous). Stems erect, twigs glabrous. Leaves deciduous to semipersistent; blade elliptic to elliptic-ovate or ovate, coriaceous, margins irregularly and shallowly serrulate-crenulate or entire, plane, surfaces finely hairy, glabrescent; venation reticulodromous or brochidodromous. Inflorescences axillary racemes of (2-)5-12-flowered corymbs, or solitary flowers, borne on leafless stems. Flowers: sepals 5, distinct, ovate to ovate-deltate; petals 5, connate ca. 3/4 their lengths, white, corolla broadly campanulate, lobes much shorter than tube; stamens 10, included; filaments straight, flattened, dilated proximally, glabrous, without spurs; anthers with 4 awns, dehiscent by oblong pores, (disintegration tissue present in connective); pistil 5-carpellate; ovary 5-locular; stigma truncate. Fruits capsular, 5-valved, depressed-globose, dry. Seeds 40-200, ovoid; testa smooth. x = 11.
Species 1: se United States.
SELECTED REFERENCES Dorr, L. J. 1981. The pollination ecology of Zenobia (Ericaceae). Amer. J. Bot. 68: 1325-1332. Pollard, C. L. 1895. The genus Zenobia Don. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 22: 231-232.
