Photographs Needed!

Images on the Parasitic Plant Connection web site generally fall into one of four categories:

1. Color photographs of living plants. These are the most desirable because a good photograph is "worth a thousand words."

2. Color photographs of herbarium specimens. These can show a number of diagnostic taxonomic features and are thus "second best" to a photo of the living plant itself. Lost are flower color, aspect of the leaves, etc.

3. Color paintings. In some cases (e.g. the extinct mistletoe Trilepidea, Loranthaceae), all that exists for this taxon is a painting, hence it is used.

3. Line art (black and white) . I have generally used line art of a taxon only if 1-3 above are not available. In terms of taxonomic value, they can be extremely useful because diagnostic taxonomic features can be clearly shown. See for example Opiliaceae.

Given the above, the Parasitic Plant Connection needs your help. For the parasitic plant genera listed below, there are currently no color photographs of living plants available through this web site. In some cases, a photograph of an herbarium specimen is available and is so indicated. I routinely conduct Google image searches and usually obtain no "hits" when the generic name is entered. In some cases, this is because the plant is extremely rare (and possibly extinct) and may never have been photographed (e.g. Thaumasianthes, Loranthaceae). In other cases, photographs may exist but are housed in private collections that are not indexed on the WWWeb. For my personal use, I keep a listing of Botanical Image Databases that I check routinely for photographs of parasitic plants. If you know of other good web sites that could be added, please let me know.

Here are the photographic statistics. From my count, there are 266 genera of parasitic flowering plants (ca. 4100 species). Currently there are photographs present on the Parasitic Plant Connection for 215 genera (81%), thus leaving 51 without photographs (listed below). In my view, it is important to have photographs of these plants to increase public awareness of their beauty and unique features, thus promoting their conservation.

If you have photos of any of these genera that you are willing to share, or know of someone to contact to obtain such a photo, please let me know ().

Olacaceae

1. Anacolosa (line drawing)
2. Harmandia (line drawing)

Loranthaceae

1. Cyne (herbarium specimen image)
2. Dactyliophora  (herbarium specimen image)
3. Distrianthes (herbarium specimen image)
4. Helicanthes  (herbarium specimen image)
5. Lampas
6. Papuanthes  (herbarium specimen image)
7. Thaumasianthes
8. Trithecanthera  (herbarium specimen image)
9. Vanwykia (herbarium specimen image and color painting; photos in Polhill & Wiens 1998)

Opiliaceae

1. Gjellerupia (line drawing)
2. Rhopalopilia (line drawing)

Santalaceae

1. Dufrenoya

Viscaceae

1. Ginalloa  (herbarium specimen image)

Balanophoraceae

1. Chlamydophytum (line drawings)

Orobanchaceae (* = holoparasites)

1. Ancistrostylis
2. Asepalum
3. Brandisia
   
4. Clevelandia
5. Gerardiina
6. Ghikaea
7. *Gleadovia (line drawing)
8. Hedbergia
9. Leptorhabdos (line drawing)
   
10. Leucosalpa
11. Magdalenaea
12. *Mannagettaea (line drawing)
    
13. Melasma
14. Micrargeriella
15. *Necranthus
16. Nothochilus
17. Omphalotrix (line drawing)
    
18. Ophiocephalus
19. Parastriga
20. Petitmenginia
21. Physocalyx (painting)
22. *Platypholis
23. Pseudobartsia (line drawing)
24. Pseudomelasma
    
25. Pseudostriga
26. Rhaphispermum
27. Sieversandreas (painting)
    
28. Silviella
29. Spirostegia
30. Tetraspidium
31. Thunbergianthus
32. *Tienmuia
33. Vellosiella
34. Xizangia (line drawing)
35. Xylanche
    

We Now Have Photos!

After tabulating the genera of parasitic plants without photographs, and posting this page, the following people have helped by providing photographs:

• Buttonia hildebrandtii (Orobanchaceae).  Richard A. Howard.
• Socratina keraudreniana (Loranthaceae).  Sonny Larsson.
• Benthamina alyxifolia (Loranthaceae). Gerhard Glatzel (with help from Bryan Barlow!).
• Ditepalanthus malagasicus (Balanophoraceae). It was there all along - as Rhopalocnemis malagasica (a synonym). Thanks Roland Eberwein for pointing this out!
• Exorhopala ruficeps (Balanophoraceae). Dr. Anton Weber.
• Kunkeliella canariensis (Santalaceae). Isabel Santana López.
• Lathrophytum peckoltii (Balanophoraceae). Leandro Cardoso.
• Mida salicifolia (Santalaceae). Tony Foster.
• Okoubaka aubrevillei (Santalaceae). M. D. Swaine.
• Pedistylus galpinii (Loranthaceae). Marco Bleeker.
• Xylocalyx asper (Orobanchaceae). Tony Miller (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)