Holboellia

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Holboellia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/holboellia/). Accessed 2025-01-14.

Family

Lardizabalaceae

Species in genus

Holboellia coriacea

Glossary

family: A group of genera more closely related to each other than to genera in other families. Names of families are identified by the suffix ‘-aceae’ (e.g. Myrtaceae) with a few traditional exceptions (e.g. Leguminosae).
ovary: Lowest part of the carpel containing the ovules; later developing into the fruit.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Holboellia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/holboellia/). Accessed 2025-01-14.

Holboellia coriacea flowering in Derby, UK, 28 May 2018. Image John Anderson.

A genus of five species of evergreen climbers native of China and the Himalaya named after F. L. Holboell, once superintendent of the Botanic Garden at Copenhagen.

As in many other members of the family, the apparent petals are really sepals, the true petals being reduced to nectaries. In the male flowers there are six stamens and a rudimentary ovary. The female flowers have small non-functional stamens (staminodes) and three carpels, each developing into a fleshy ‘pod’. The stamens are free from each other and the sepals fleshy, whereas in the related genus Stauntonia (q.v.) the stamens are united and the sepals thin.

From the Supplement (Vol.V)

Stauntonuia, to which Holboellia is closely allied, has seven years’ priority over it. Some species are intermediate in the characters used to diffentiate the two genera.