| Cochliostema | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Cochliostema odoratissimum | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Commelinales |
| Family: | Commelinaceae |
| Subfamily: | Commelinoideae |
| Tribe: | Tradescantieae |
| Subtribe: | Dichorisandrinae |
| Genus: | Cochliostema Lem. |
| Species | |
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Cochliostema is a genus of plants with two species in the familyCommelinaceae (the spiderwort and dayflower family). The genus occurs from southernNicaragua to southernEcuador.
Cochliostema is a member of the subtribe Dichorisandrinae of the tribe Tradescantieae of the flowering plant family Commelinaceae. Its closest relative in the Dichorisandrinae isPlowmanianthus, followed byGeogenanthus. All three genera share the possession of flower petals fringed with moniliform trichomes. WithinCochliostema there are two species:Cochliostema velutinum R.W.Read andCochliostema odoratissimum Lemaire.Cochliostema jacobianum, a 19th-century name thought to represent another species and still popular among horticulturists, is considered as part of the latter species.
Rosette, typically unbranched herbs with somewhatsucculent, strap-shaped leaves. In the wild, plants grow asepiphytes; however, terrestrial plants are found on or around tree falls suggesting that these ground-dwelling plants had been growing epiphytically. One species,Cochliostema odoratissimum, is a tank-epiphyte, resembling certain bromeliads in this respect. This species also attains the greatest size for the genus, with its leaves reaching to 1 m in length, and plants sometimes reaching 2 m in height.
Flowers are borne in large thyrses and are generally the largest (ca. 2.5 cm diam.), among the most fragrant, and arguably the most complex in the spiderwort family. They consist of 3sepals, 3 blue to blue-violet and fringedpetals, 3 stamens fused by their filaments in the upper half of the flower, and 3 carpels fused into a singletrilocularpistil. The fusedstaminal structure has 3 spirally coiledanthers enveloped and concealed by petaloid extensions of the filaments of the two lateral stamens contributing to the 3-staminate structure. These structures, termed "cuculli", are narrowed into two distal hose-like extensions.
