Cyrtandra J.R.Forst. & G.Forst., Char. Gen. Pl.

Atkins, H. J. & Kartonegoro, A., 2021, A TAXONOMIC REVISION OF CYRTANDRA (GESNERIACEAE) IN SULAWESI, INDONESIA, Edinburgh Journal of Botany 78 (364), pp. 1-122 : 11-12

Cyrtandra J.R.Forst. & G.Forst., Char. Gen. Pl. 5 (1776).

– Type species: Cyrtandra biflora J.R.Forst. & G.Forst ., designated by St John, 1966.

Whitia Blume , Catalogus 86 (1823).

– Type species: Whitia oblongifolia Blume (= C. oblongifolia (Blume) Benth. & Hook.f. ex C.B.Clarke ).

Cyrtandroidea F.Br., Bull. Bernice P. Bishop Mus. 180: 323 (1935).

– Type species: Cyrtandroidea jonesii F.Br. (= Cyrtandra jonesii (F.Br.) G.W.Gillett ).

Protocyrtandra Hosok., Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Formosa 24: 202 (1934).

– Type species: Protocyrtandra todaiensis (Kaneh.) Hosok. (= C. todaiensis Kaneh. ).

The following generic description covers species known from Sulawesi.

Herbs, shrubs, rarely small trees or epiphytic climbers. Stems rounded to angular, hairy (with uniseriate, eglandular hairs) or glabrescent, sometimes woody. Leaves simple; opposite or in threes, sometimes appearing alternate; those of a pair or group subequal, or well developed but somewhat unequal in size, or with one leaf of a pair markedly reduced; petiolate or sessile; glabrous to densely hairy above, often more densely hairy below especially on midrib and veins; leaf bases occasionally markedly oblique, sometimes decurrent or auriculate; margins entire to serrate. Inflorescence axillary, geoflorous or cauliflorous; pedunculate or subsessile; flowers one to numerous. Peduncle with minute to large, sometimes connate, sometimes caducous bracts. Calyx 5-lobed, tube long or short, deciduous or persistent in fruit. Corolla 5-lobed, limb weakly to strongly bilabiate, lobes recurved, spreading, erect or extending forwards, mouth open to strongly compressed laterally, usually white, sometimes yellow, purple, pink or red, sometimes with distinctive markings on lobes and throat. Stamens 2, filaments borne roughly midway in tube. Staminodes 2 or 3, borne roughly midway in tube. Disc cupular or unilateral, often persistent around ovary in fruit. Ovary superior, glabrous or hairy, unilocular, placentation parietal, placentae recurved, ovules numerous. Style glabrous or hairy. Stigma bilobed, peltate or capitate. Fruit indehiscent, ovoid, subglobose, oblong or narrowly cylindrical, hairy or glabrous, hard-walled or fleshy, often tipped by a persistent style and sometimes with a persistent calyx in fruit. Seeds numerous, ellipsoid.

Distribution. From the Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean, throughout Malesia, in Taiwan and the southern Japanese islands, in northern Australia and east across Polynesia to Hawaii.