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Published In: Enumeratio Systematica Plantarum, quas in insulis Caribaeis 3, 18. 1760. (Aug--Sep 1760) (Enum. Syst. Pl.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 10/11/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 12/3/2010)
Notes:

Hillia Jacq. includes about 25 species of succulent, usually epiphytic shrubs and small trees distributed widely in the New World tropics. Hillia plants are found in wet tropical forests, from low to montane elevations. The genus can be recognized by its combination of well developed, interpetiolar, oblanceolate to obovate stipules that are held erect and flattened together in bud, its succulent leaves with the secondary venation usually not visible, its usually relatively large corollas with well developed tubes and 4-10 lobes that are convolute in bud, and its cylindrical woody capsules that contain numerous flat papery seeds with a tuft of silky filaments 1-3 cm long on one end. The seeds are apparently wind-dispersed; a similar arrangement, with a tuft of trichomes at one end, is found in one other genus of neotropical epiphytes, Didymochlamys Hook.f. The flowers vary from salverform to broadly tubular, and range from diurnal and red to nocturnal and white, green, or yellow-green. 

Species of Hillia can be confused with those of Cosmibuena Ruiz & Pav.; however Cosmibuena differs in its stipules that are shortly united around the stem (vs. separate in Hillia) and its seeds without Hillia's tuft of filaments. Hillia was monographed by Taylor (1994), who included in it the Central American genus Ravnia (Taylor, 1989) and recognized five subgenera.

Author: C.M. Taylor
The content of this web page was last revised 3 December 2010.
Taylor web page: http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/taylor.shtml

Distribution:

Neotropics: Wet lowland to montane forests, including mangroves, Mexico and the Antilles to Bolivia and southeastern Brazil.

References:
Names and Synonyms:

The following list is based on ongoing study, and is intended to facilite work on this genus. This list includes the species and names that have so far been studied.
Note: Synonymous names are listed here without links, and with their equivalents; accepted names are listed here with their subgenus classification, and again in the "Lower Taxa" section of this web page with links to additional data (including images).
Note: For each accepted species name linked below, clicking will lead to the Rubiaceae Project data page. To then see the standard TROPICOS Name page directly from that page, go to the upper right of the screen and under "Project", choose "TROPICOS".
Note: The subgenus to which a species belongs is indicated by a letter in parentheses after its name: A for subg. Andinae, H for subg. Hillia, I for subg. Illustres, R for subg. Ravnia, T for subg. Tetrandrae.

Cosmibuena acuminata Ruiz & Pav. = Hillia parasitica
Cosmibuena rhizophorae Standl. = Hillia maxonii
Fereirea vellozana Schult. & Schult.f. = Hillia parasitica
Hillia allenii C.M. Taylor (R)
Hillia boliviana Britton = Hillia parasitica
Hillia bonoi Steyerm. (H)
Hillia brasiliensis Cham. & Schltdl. = Hillia parasitica
Hillia chiapensis Standl. = Hillia panamensis
Hillia chiapensis subsp. grandifolia Dwyer = Hillia palmana
Hillia chiriquiensis Dywer = Cosmibuena valerioi
Hillia costanensis Steyerm. (I)
Hillia foldatsii Steyerm. (I)
Hillia goudotii Standl. = Hillia illustris
Hillia grayumii C.M. Taylor (I)
Hillia hathewayi Fosberg = Hillia panamensis
Hillia illustris (Vell.) K. Schum. (I)
Hillia irwinii Steyerm. = Hillia ulei
Hillia killipii Standl. (H)
Hillia liguliflora = Cosmibuena valerioi
Hillia longifilamentosa (Steyerm.) C.M. Taylor (R)
Hillia longiflora Blanco = Elytranthe ampullacea (Loranthaceae)
Hillia longiflora Hort. ex Lem. = Fagraea zeylanica Thunb. (Loganiaceae)
Hillia longiflora Sw. = Hillia parasitica
Hillia loranthoides Standl. (T)
Hillia macbridei Standl. (A)
Hillia macrocarpa Standl. & Steyerm. = Hillia loranthoides
Hillia macromeris Standl. (H)
Hillia macrophylla Standl. (H)
Hillia maguirei Steyerm. = Hillia parasitica
Hillia marcano-bertii Steyerm. = H. macrophylla
Hillia maxonii Standl. (T)
Hillia microcarpa Steyerm. = Hillia parasitica
Hillia oaxacana C.M. Taylor (R)
Hillia odorata K. Krause = Hillia parasitica
Hillia palmana Standl. (T)
Hillia panamensis Standl. (T)
Hillia parasitica Jacq. (H)
Hillia parasitica var. nobilis (Vell.) Steyerm. = Hillia parasitica
Hillia psammophila Steyerm. (I)
Hillia rivalis C.M. Taylor (R)
Hillia saldanhae K. Schum. (I)
Hillia schultesii Steyerm. = Hillia ulei
Hillia tetrandra Sw. (T)
Hillia triflora (Oerst.) C.M. Taylor (R)
Hillia triflora var. pittieri (Standl.) C.M. Taylor (R)
Hillia trinitensis R.O. Williams & Cheeseman = Hillia illustris
Hillia tubaeflora Cham. = Hillia illustris
Hillia tuxtlensis Sessé & Moç. = Hillia tetrandra
Hillia ulei K. Krause (I(
Hillia valerioi Standl. = Cosmibuena valerioi
Hillia viridiflora Kuhlm. & Silveira = Hillia ulei
Hillia weberbaueri Standl. = Hillia parasitica
Hillia wurdackii Steyerm. (H)
Hillia zuliaensis Steyerm. = Hillia costanensis
Lagenanthus parviflora Ewan (as Gentianaceae) = Hillia triflora var. pittieri
Posoqueria montana Mart. = Hillia parasitica
Ravnia longifilamentosa Steyerm. = Hillia longifilamentosa
Ravnia panamensis Steyerm. = Hillia allenii
Ravnia pittieri = Hillia triflora var. pittieri
Ravnia triflora Oerst. = Hillia triflora
Saldanha illustris Vell. = Hillia illustris
Saldanha nobilis Vell. = Hillia parasitica

 


 

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HILLIA Jacq., Enum. Syst. Pl. 3. 1760.

Succulent epiphytic shrubs or small trees, unarmed, glabrous. Leaves opposite, petiolate to subsessile, venation not lineolate and often not visible; stipules interpetiolar, ligulate to oblanceolate, erect and flatly appressed, caducous. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes bracteate, 1(3)-flowered. Flowers large, showy, homostylous, protandrous, diurnal or nocturnal, sometimes fragrant, sessile or pedunculate. Hypanthium cylindrical to ellipsoid. Calyx limb none or deeply 4--10-lobed, without calycophylls; corolla salverform or funnelform to ventricose, red, green, or white, glabrous internally and externally, lobes 4--10, convolute in bud. Stamens 4--7, inserted near top or middle of corolla tube; anthers narrowly oblong, included, dorsifixed near base. Ovary 2-locular; ovules numerous in each locule, on axile placentas. Fruit capsular, cylindric or narrowly oblong, woody, smooth to longitudinally ridged, septicidally dehiscent from the apex. Seeds papery, small, flattened, fusiform, marginally winged and with a tuft of long filaments at the apex.

 

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Key to the Subgenera of Hillia

1. Corollas funnelform to tubular or inflated, salmon to bright red or green
sometimes flushed with yellow, pink, orange, or dull purple.
 
2. Corollas funnelform, green sometimes flushed with yellow, pink,
orange, or dull purple; Costa Rica to southeastern Brazil... Subg. Illustres (7 species)  

2. Corollas funnelform to tubular or inflated in the middle, salmon tobright red; southern Mexico to northwestern Colombia and 1 species in northeastern Venezuela...Subg. Ravnia (5 species) 

1. Corollas salverform, white to pale green or sometimes flushed with pink.

3. Corolla lobes 4; stigmas linear, positioned below the anthers;
Antilles and southern Mexico to northwestern South America... Subg. Tetrandrae (5 species)   
3. Corolla lobes 5-6; stigmas subcapitate to linear, positioned above
or below the anthers.

4. Stamens inserted near middle of corolla tube; stigmas linear,
positioned below anthers; Ecuador and Peru...Subg. Andinae (1 secies)
4. Stamens inserted near top of corolla tube; stigmas subcapitate
to shortly linear, positioned just above anthers; Antilles and widespread in South America...Subg. Hillia (6 species)

 

 
 
 
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