Revision of Passiflora Subgenus Decaloba ... - Passion Flowers

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Passiflora L. subgenus Decaloba (DC.) Rchb. supersection Cieca (Medic.) J.
M. MacDougal & Feuillet is a monophyletic group of herbaceous to woody
climbers found in subtropical and tropical regions of the world from latitude 34°N
to latitude 34°S. The 19 species recognized here are primarily distributed in the
southern United States, México, Central America, South America, and the
Caribbean. Two species, P. suberosa L. and P. pallida L., also occur in various
regions of the Old World, likely as a result of naturalization.
Friedrich Medikus (Medikus, 1787) was the first to recognize this group, and
he proposed the generic name Cieca for the apetalous species of
Passifloraceae. Since Medikus' time several monographers have also
acknowledged the phenetic cohesiveness of these species and placed them (or
most of them) in their own genus or section. However, the species with tubular,
hummingbird-pollinated flowers were often excluded and other species of
uncertain relationship included. John MacDougal, as part of his revision of
Passiflora subgenus Decaloba section Pseudodysosmia (Passifloraceae), was
the first to not only include the tubular-flowered species in supersection Cieca but
also to transfer various vegetatively divergent species out of the supersection
(MacDougal, 1983).
Supersection Cieca belongs within subgenus Decaloba on the basis of having
flowers with the corona in a few series, a plicate operculum, secondary opercula
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