''Mischogyne'' is a genus of

plants Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...

in the family

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

. It comprises five species distributed in

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, its north and Guinea to Guinea–Guinea-Bissau b ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

Arthur Wallis Exell Arthur Wallis Exell OBE (21 May 1901 in Birmingham – 15 January 1993 in Cheltenham) was initially an assistant and later Deputy Keeper of Botany at the British Museum during the years 1924–1939 and 1950–1962. A noted cryptographer, taxono ...

the British botanist who first

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

the genus named it after the stalks (μίσχος, míschos, in Greek) that bears its reproductive (γυνή, gunḗ, in Greek) structures.

Description

Mischogyne are bushes or small trees. Their trunks are straight or branching from the base. They have elliptical to oval leaves that are arranged in an alternate

phyllotaxy In botany, phyllotaxis () or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature. Leaf arrangement The basic arrangements of leaves on a stem are opposite and alterna ...

. The leaves are paper to leathery with a dark green upper surface and a lighter green underside. The leaves can be hairless or covered in fine downy hairs. Their

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s have 1-2 flowers and are extra-

axillary Axillary means "related to the axilla (armpit)" or "related to the leaf axils". "Axillary" may refer to: Biology * Axillary artery * Axillary border * Axillary fascia * Axillary feathers * Axillary hairs * Axillary lines * Axillary lymph nodes ...

or terminal. Their flowers have both male and female reproductive structures. Their flowers have 3

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s that either touch one another at their margins, or are fused until

anthesis Anthesis is the period during which a flower is fully open and functional. It may also refer to the onset of that period. The onset of anthesis is spectacular in some species. In ''Banksia'' species, for example, anthesis involves the extension ...

. Their flowers have 6 white, oval petals arranged in two rows of three. In the flowers, the receptacles form columns that bear

stamen 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 ...

s at their base and

carpels Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ...

at their apex. Each flower has numerous stamens that are arranged in a spiral

. The stamens have little or no filament, are linear, and deshisce laterally. The

theca In biology, a theca (: thecae) is a sheath or a covering. Botany In botany, the theca is related to plant's flower anatomy. The theca of an angiosperm consists of a pair of microsporangia that are adjacent to each other and share a common ar ...

e extend along nearly the entire length of the stamen. The connective tissue between the thecae can be hairless or covered in fine downy hairs, and can sometimes terminate in a tuft of hairs at the apex of the stamen. The flowers have 3-40 cylindrical or oval carpels that are densely covered in fine downy hairs. The styles are short. The stigmas have two lobes. The carpels have numerous

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the sporangium, megasporangium), ...

s. The fruit can be round, ellipsoidal or oblong and either hairless or covered in fine downy hairs. The fruit can be smooth or ribbed. The fruit have 3-12 seeds per carpel. The seeds are flat ellipsoids.

Species

Species include: * '' Mischogyne congensis'' Gosline * '' Mischogyne elliotiana'' (Engl. & Diels) R.E.Fr. ex Le Thomas * '' Mischogyne gabonensis'' (Le Thomas) Gosline * '' Mischogyne iddii'' Gosline & A.R.Marshall Marshall * '' Mischogyne michelioides'' Exell

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9033615 Annonaceae Annonaceae genera Flora of Angola Flora of Cameroon Flora of Gabon Flora of Ghana Flora of Guinea Flora of Guinea-Bissau Flora of Ivory Coast Flora of Liberia Flora of Nigeria Flora of Sierra Leone Flora of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Taxa named by Arthur Wallis Exell