70. Phuopsis (Grisebach) Bentham & J. D. Hooker, Gen. Pl. 2: 151. 1873.
长柱草属 chang zhu cao shu
Authors: Tao Chen & Friedrich Ehrendorfer
Asperula sect. Phuopsis Grisebach, Spic. Fl. Rumel. 2: 167. 1846.
Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous. Raphides present. Leaves and leaflike stipules in whorls of 6-10, sessile, without domatia, with margins minutely antrorsely aculeolate. Inflorescences terminal, pedunculate, capitate, ± many flowered, enclosed by a whorl of free leaflike bracts, flowers subtended by acuminate bracts. Flowers sessile, bisexual, monomorphic. Calyx limb obsolete. Corolla pink, slender, salverform, inside glabrous; lobes 5, valvate in bud. Stamens 5, inserted in corolla tube, included to partially exserted; filaments short; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary 2-celled, smooth, ovules 1 in each cell, erect, basal, anatropous; stigma clavate, shortly 2-lobed at apex, strongly exserted. Fruit schizocarpous, 2 mericarps ellipsoid to obovoid, dry, rather hard, indehiscent, 1-celled, each with 1 ellipsoid to curved, smooth to striate seed.
One species: SW Asia (Azerbaijan, NW Iran), occasionally cultivated as an ornamental in China.
Phuopsis belongs to the core genera of the tribe Rubieae (subtribe Rubiinae). Remote and DNA-supported affinities exist with Crucianella, some groups of Asperula, and particularly with the widespread annual Sherardia. In the present volume Phuopsis is briefly discussed in the introduction to the genus Galium and keyed out there. Phuopsis is a monotypic relict genus restricted to the small Hyrcanian area of NW Iran and Talysh in S Azerbaijan (Ehrendorfer et al., Fl. Iranica 176: 1-287. 2005). Its single species has secondary pollen presentation and is butterfly-pollinated.
