| Acanthus eminens | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Acanthaceae |
| Genus: | Acanthus |
| Species: | A. eminens |
| Binomial name | |
| Acanthus eminens C.B. Clarke (1899) | |
Acanthus eminens is a species of flowering plant in the genus Acanthus. It is primarily found in the tropical regions of Eastern Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.
Description
It is a perennial shrub that typically grows between 1 to 2 or 3 meters tall. It has pinnatifid, dark green leaves with deeply lobed margins. The flowers are produced in tall, dense spikes, being purple or violet. or blue in colour. It now suffers from fragmentation, pollinator limitation, and inbreeding.
Notes
- Acanthus eminens detailed description:
- "Acanthus eminens C.B.Clarke [family ACANTHACEAE] on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
Shrubby herb or shrub to 3 m tall; young stems glabrous. Leaves with petiole 0.5–2(–2.5) cm long; lamina narrowly elliptic to elliptic or obovate in outline, largest 13–37≈5–15 cm, deeply lobed with large triangular spine-tipped lobes, each lobe with a spine on antrorse side, apex acuminate to cuspidate, spine-tipped, base attenuate to cuneate, glabrous; each node with one to several persistent sharp terete straw-coloured interpetiolar downwardly directed pungent pale yellow spines to 1.5 cm long, occasionally some with a small lamina. Cymes solitary or also 2 from upper leaf-pair, (5–)7–30 cm long; rachis upwards pubescent and with few to many short to long capitate glands, with several pairs of sterile bracts at base, sometimes merging into the vegetative leaves; bracts green to purplish, ovate to elliptic, finely puberulous to sparsely pubescent and upwards with few to many stalked capitate glands, 1.4–2.8 cm long in middle of cyme, spine-tipped and with 4–8 teeth per side (rarely entire); bracteoles subulate to linear, 5–11 mm long, entire. Calyx green to purplish, puberulous and with few to many stalked capitate glands; dorsal and ventral sepals longer than bract, oblong-obovate, similar or dorsal slightly longer, 2.1–4 cm long, dorsal entire or 2–3-toothed, ventral 2–3-toothed or irregularly toothed, lateral lanceolate, 1.3–2.5 cm long, acuminate. Corolla dark blue to dark purple (rarely pale blue to almost white); tube 4–5 mm long below thickened rim which is 3–4 mm long; limb 5-lobed, 3.5–5≈3.5–5 cm, below puberulous and with capitate glands, above glabrous; callus with narrow central groove. Filaments 1.7–2.2 cm long, glabrous or with stalked glands near apex; anthers 6–9 mm long, densely glandular dorsally. Capsule 2.3–2.5 cm long. Seed ellipsoid to round, 9–10 mm long, glabrous.
- "Acanthus eminens in Global Plants on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
ACANTHUS eminens C. B. Clarke
Information : Glabrate, 6–8 ft high. Inflorescence pubescent. Leaves 10 × 4 in., pinnatifid, spinous, with almost no petiole. Spike 9 × 2 1/2 in.; bracts scarcely 1 in. long, ovate, barely acute, with several spines along the margin; bracteoles 1/4 in. long, subulate, not spinous. Calyx soft, not spinescent; posticous segment 1 1/5 × nearly 1/2 in., broadly oblong, not lanceolate towards the apex; anticous segment of the same size and shape, 2-nerved, minutely emarginate at the tip; 2 innermost segments 2/3–3/4 in. long, lanceolate. Corolla 2 in. long, purple (Scott-Elliot). Ovary large, with a hemispherical cap; style densely short-hairy in the lower half.
- "Acanthus eminens C.B.Clarke [family ACANTHACEAE] on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
References
- "Acanthus eminens". Plants of the World Online. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
- "Acanthus eminens". TICAH Plant Database. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
- Acanthus eminens description:
- Inventory: United States Department of Agriculture. The Department. 1940. p. 74.
A shrub about 7 feet high, with large pinnatifid spinous leaves about 10 inches long and purple flowers 2 inches long in short spikes. Native to eastern tropical Africa.
- The official gazette of the colony and protectorate of Kenya. 1938-03-08. p. 263.
Acanthus eminens (Blue eminens) A blue flowering shrub up to 10 ft. high with thistle like leaves, prefers a shady position or cool most climate.
- Inventory: United States Department of Agriculture. The Department. 1940. p. 74.
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- Evelyn Cecil (1935). Wild Flowers of the Great Dominions of the British Empire. p. 343.
... those on the capitals of Greek columns, but as prickly as thistles (Acanthus eminens) and having the usual straight spike of bloom, but bright-blue flowers.
- Arthur John Jex-Blake, Royal Kenya Horticultural Society (1934). Gardening in East Africa: A Practical Handbook. p. 162.
Acanthus eminens, similar to the above but with blue flowers, and prefers cool moist conditions and shade.
- Coryndon Memorial Museum, East Africa Natural History Society, National Museum of Kenya (1946). Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society and National Museum. p. 83.
... and of the bright blue, flowering spikes of Acanthus eminens grew under the canopy of this forest.
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- Evelyn Cecil (1935). Wild Flowers of the Great Dominions of the British Empire. p. 343.
- "Effect of forest fragmentation on Acanthus eminens". Biota-Africa.
Also, ecosystem processes like plant-pollinator networks are affected due to changes in population sizes, microclimate and species ranges. Results show, that the forest depending shrub Acanthus eminens (Acanthaceae) indeed suffers due to forest fragmentation, showing pollinator limitation as well as inbreeding depression.
| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Acanthus eminens | |
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