29. Kosteletzkya C. Presl, Reliq. Haenk. 2: 130, plate 70. 1835. name conserved.
[For Vincenz Franz Kosteletzky, 1801–1887, Czech botanist] [For Vincenz Franz Kosteletzky, 1801–1887, Czech botanist]
Orland J. Blanchard Jr.
Thorntonia Reichenbach, name rejected
Herbs, perennial [annual], or subshrubs, variously scabrous. Stems erect or ascending [scrambling or creeping]. Leaves: stipules persistent, linear-subulate or filiform; blade narrowly ovate to transversely ovate [lanceolate], unlobed to palmately, often hastately or sagittately, 3–5-lobed, maplelike, base cordate to rounded or truncate, margins crenate, serrate, or nearly entire. Inflorescences axillary, solitary flowers or, by upper leaf reduction, forming open panicles [racemes, spikes, or pedunculate glomerules]. Pedicels jointed, at least in fruit; involucellar bractlets persistent, 6–10, distinct. Flowers: calyx persistent, somewhat accrescent, not inflated, not spathaceous, lobes veined, not strongly ribbed, triangular-ovate, often narrowly so, apex acute; corolla rotate or funnelform [convolute], pink or white [yellow, sometimes with red spot at base]; staminal column 1/2 length of to nearly equaling petals [much exceeding them]; ovary 5-carpellate; ovules 1 per carpel; styles 5-branched at or beyond orifice of staminal column; stigmas capitate. Fruits capsules, erect, not inflated, oblate, depressed, slightly impressed, 5-angled or -winged, 5-valved, 5-locular, apex apiculate, flattened or rounded, not indurate, not fleshy, hairy or minutely so, ± scabrid, often transversely rugose or striate, sections dehiscent. Seeds 1 per locule, reniform-ovoid [reniform-globose], glabrous or scabridulous, often with curved, concentric lines. x = 19.
Species 17 (2 in the flora): United States, Mexico, West Indies, Bermuda, Central America, n South America, Eurasia, tropical Africa, Pacific Islands (Philippines).
Kosteletzkya is characterized by carpels that are uni-ovulate and capsules that are more or less depressed and five-angled, often bristly on the sutures. At maturity, the capsule valves separate from the fruiting axis as well as from one another.
A specimen of Kosteletzkya thurberi A. Gray at MO is labeled “Arizona (Gadsden Purchase) A. Schott leg.”; it is probably a duplicate of a collection by Schott from the Cocospera River near Cocospera in the Mexican state of Sonora in September 1855 (F, NY). Kosteletzkya thurberi is not known otherwise from north of Mexico.
