''Seemannia'' is a

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

genus in the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

family

Gesneriaceae Gesneriaceae, the gesneriad family, is a family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of about 152 genera and ca. 3,540 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World (almost all Didymocarpoideae) and the New World (most Ges ...

. There are four species in the genus, primarily found in the

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

regions of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The name honors the German botanist

Berthold Carl Seemann Berthold Carl Seemann (25 February 1825, in Kingdom of Hanover – 10 October 1871, in Nicaragua) was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America. In 1844 he travelled to the Unit ...

Taxonomic history

''Seemannia'' was created in 1855 by Regel for the species ''Seemannia ternifolia'' (now considered a synonym of ''S. sylvatica''). In 1976 ''Seemannia'' was synonymized under the genus '' Gloxinia'' by gesneriad specialist

Hans Wiehler Hans Joachim Wiehler (8 July 1930 in Klecie, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Klettendorf – 2003) was a German botanist who specialized in the plant family Gesneriaceae. In 1954 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana ...

but has more recently been revived following phylogenetic and morphological research on relationships of ''Gloxinia'' and related genera, which suggested that Wiehler's generic concept of ''Gloxinia'' was overly broad and

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. Although now recognized as a separate genus, ''Seemannia'' is closely related to ''Gloxinia'' and hybrids between the two genera are fertile although the two genera are very distinct morphologically. Although all of the species occur in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, '' Seemannia purpurascens'' is unusual in having a

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

, with populations in northern

(

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, and northern

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

) widely separated from Andean populations in southern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Species

Four species are accepted. * '' Seemannia gymnostoma'' – southern Peru, Bolivia, northern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

* '' Seemannia nematanthodes'' – Bolivia, northern Argentina * '' Seemannia purpurascens'' – southern Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, French Guiana, northern Brazil * '' Seemannia sylvatica'' – Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina,

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, southern Brazil

References

*Roalson, E.H., J.K. Boggan, L.E., Skog, & E.A. Zimmer. 2005. Untangling the Gloxinieae (Gesneriaceae). I. Phylogenetic patterns and generic boundaries inferred from nuclear, chloroplast, and morphological cladistic data sets. ''Taxon'' 54 (2): 389-410. *Roalson, E.H., J.K. Boggan & L.E. Skog. 2005. Reorganization of tribal and generic boundaries in the Gloxinieae (Gesneriaceae: Gesnerioideae) and the description of a new tribe in the Gesnerioideae, Sphaerorrhizeae. ''Selbyana'' 25 (2): 225-238. *Wiehler, H. 1976. A report on the classification of ''Achimenes'', ''Eucodonia'', ''Gloxinia'', and ''Anetanthus'' (Gesneriaceae). ''Selbyana'' 1 (4): 374-404.

External links

''Seemannia''
a
Genera of Gesneriaceae
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7445884 Gesnerioideae Gesneriaceae genera Flora of Southern America Taxa described in 1855 Taxa named by Eduard August von Regel