''Forstera'' is a genus of small

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

s in the

Stylidiaceae The family Stylidiaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It consists of five genera with over 240 species, most of which are endemic to Australia and New Zealand. Members of Stylidiaceae are typically grass-like herbs or small shrub ...

family named in honour of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

naturalists Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (; 22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Reformed pastor and naturalist. Born in Tczew, Dirschau, Pomeranian Voivodeship (1466–1772), Pomeranian Voivodeship, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Tczew, Po ...

and his son,

Georg Forster Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (; 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German geography, geographer, natural history, naturalist, ethnology, ethnologist, travel literature, travel writer, journalist and revol ...

, who had previously described ''Forsteras sister genus, ''

Phyllachne ''Phyllachne'' is a genus of four cushion plant species in the family Stylidiaceae. Of the four species, two are endemic to New Zealand, while '' P. colensoi'' is also native to Tasmania and '' P. uliginosa'' is entirely endemic to sout ...

'' just five years earlier. It comprises five species that are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

with the exception of '' F. bellidifolia'', which is endemic to

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. The species in this genus resemble those in a

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

of the related genus ''

Stylidium ''Stylidium'' (the triggerplants or trigger plants) is a genus of dicotyledonous plants that belong to the family Stylidiaceae. The genus name ''Stylidium'' is derived from the Greek ''στύλος'' or ''stylos'' (column or pillar), which refer ...

'' called '' Forsteropsis'', but they are more closely related to the genus ''Phyllachne''. Proposals to merge the two genera based on information from

cladistic analysis Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

have emerged because of these genera's morphological similarities and evidence that they are

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

Description

The species in ''Forstera'' are generally erect or decumbent

perennials In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

with small

imbricate Aestivation or estivation is the positional arrangement of the parts of a flower within a flower bud before it has opened. Aestivation is also sometimes referred to as praefoliation or prefoliation, but these terms may also mean vernation: the ar ...

leaves and pedicellate, actinomorphic flowers.Good, R. (1925)
On the geographical distribution of the Stylidiaceae
''New Phytologist'', 24(4): 225-240. ''Forstera'' and its closely allied sister genus ''

'' have often been regarded as the most

plesiomorphic In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, an ...

genera in their family. Characteristics that this genus shares with ''Phyllachne'' include apically fused thecae that form a single-celled curved

anther The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

and the

epigynous In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the pistil which holds the ovule(s) and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the ba ...

nectaries. ''Forstera'' can be distinguished from ''Phyllachne'' by its long peduncle (absent in ''Phyllachne'') and the

cushion plant A cushion plant is a compact, low-growing, mat-forming plant that is found in alpine, subalpine, arctic, or subarctic environments around the world. The term "cushion" is usually applied to woody plants that grow as spreading mats, are limited i ...

habit of ''Phyllachne''.Laurent, N., Bremer, B., Bremer, K. (1998). Phylogeny and generic interrelationships of the Stylidiaceae (Asterales), with a possible extreme case of floral paedomorphosis. ''Systematic Botany'', 23(3): 289-304.

Botanical history

The genus ''Forstera'' was first named by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

Letter from Linnaeus to J.R. Forster, 1776
Accessed online: 15 June 2017. and described in 1780 by

in ''Nova Acta Regiae Societatis Scientiarum Upsaliensis''. Many sources erroneously list L.f. (

Carolus Linnaeus the Younger Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Carolus Linnaeus the Younger, Carl von Linné den yngre (Swedish language, Swedish; abbreviated Carl von Linné d. y.), or ''Linnaeus filius'' (Latin for ''Linnaeus the son''; abbreviated L.fil. (outdated) or L.f. (mo ...

's standard author abbreviation) as the author of the genus, but the

Australian Plant Name Index The Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) is an online database of all published names of Australian vascular plants. It covers all names, whether current names, synonyms or invalid names. It includes bibliographic and typification details, informati ...

(APNI) has the correct citation''Forstera'' G.Forst.

. Accessed online: 10 July 2017. The first species placed in the genus was '' F. sedifolia'', which would remain the only species in the genus for 72 years. The

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

botanist Sir

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Ro ...

described three new species: '' F. bellidifolia'' in 1852 and '' F. bidwillii'' and '' F. tenella'' in 1853.Mildbraed, J. (1908). Stylidiaceae. In: Engler, A. ''Das Pflanzenreich: Regni vegetabilis conspectus''. IV. 278. Leipzig. There was an uncertainty among botanists whether these plants belonged in one genus or two. The first instance of such uncertainty began when

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

moved ''F. sedifolia'' and ''F. bellidifolia'' to ''Phyllachne'' in 1874. In 1889,

Selmar Schönland Selmar Schonland (15 August 1860 – 22 April 1940), originally spelt ''Schönland'', the founder of the Department of Botany at Rhodes University, was a German immigrant, who came to the Eastern part of the Cape Colony in 1889 to take up an app ...

reduced the genus itself to a

section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

of ''Phyllachne'' under the name ''Phyllachne'' sect. ''Forstera'' in Engler and Prantl's ''

Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien ''Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' is a botanical work in German language, first published in many volumes between 1887–1915 and written by Adolf Engler (1844–1930) and Karl Anton Prantl (1849–1893). It contained a complete revision of ...

''. The moves established what later taxonomists would come to realize: that these two genera are closely related. By

Johannes Mildbraed Gottfried Wilhelm Johannes Mildbraed (19 December 1879 – 24 December 1954) was a German botanist who specialized in mosses, ferns, and various spermatophytes. He is well known for authoring the most current monograph and taxonomic treatment of ...

's 1908 taxonomic

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

on the family in Engler's ''

Das Pflanzenreich Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

'', all four species known at the time were placed back into ''Forstera''. The last species in this genus to be described was '' F. mackayii'' in 1935 by

Harry Allan Harry Howard Barton Allan (27 April 1882 – 29 October 1957) was a New Zealand teacher, botanist, scientific administrator, and writer. Despite never receiving a formal education in botany, he became an eminent scientist, publishing ove ...

, bringing the total to five species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4492001 Flora of New Zealand Asterales genera