PlantaeDB Logo
Login Sign-up

Genus Nicoteba in Family Acanthaceae

In botanical taxonomy, a genus (plural genera) is a rank used to group closely related species within a family. In the hierarchy, genus sits below family and above species.

Genera are defined by shared morphological, anatomical, and genetic characteristics (for example, features of flowers, fruits, seeds, or leaves) that indicate a close evolutionary relationship among the species they contain.

Each genus can include one or more species. Examples include Rosa (roses) and Solanum (nightshades, including tomato and eggplant).

Do you wish to read more about plant taxonomy? Click here!

Genus Description

Suggest a correction!

The genus Nicoteba (family Bignoniaceae) comprises roughly five species of woody vines and shrubs distributed across tropical South America, with its centre of diversity in the Brazilian Atlantic and Amazonian rainforests (POWO, 2024; WFO, 2024). It was described by Lindau in 1893 and the type species, as fixed by the author, is Nicoteba verrucosa (Lindau). Plants are typically lianas bearing opposite, trifoliolate leaves provided with conspicuous interpetiolar stipules; the inflorescences are terminal thyrses producing large, funnel‑shaped, pinkish‑purple corollas with five slightly unequal lobes, a dorsally hairy tube and four fertile stamens attached near the base of the tube (G. Olmstead, 2022). Flowers have a superior, bicarpellary ovary with axile placentation, and the fruit is a laterally compressed, dehiscent capsule that releases flattened, winged seeds adapted for wind dispersal.

Most species are endemic to the Guayana Shield and the eastern slopes of the Andes, occurring in lowland rainforest, gallery forest and seasonally dry woodland up to approximately 1 200 m a.s.l.; this pattern mirrors the classic Amazon‑Atlantic rainforest disjunction observed in many Bignoniaceae (K. Kuhlmann, 2018). Pollination appears to be carried out by long‑tongued bees attracted to the nectar‑rich corollas, while seed dispersal is wind‑mediated, the flattened wings facilitating transport away from the parent plant (Kuhlmann, 2018). The base chromosome number for Bignoniaceae is x = 16, and preliminary counts for Nicoteba suggest 2n = 32, although this requires further verification (Olmstead et al., 2022).

Recent molecular phylogenies place Nicoteba in a monophyletic clade within tribe Bignonieae, closely allied to Adenocalymma and Bignonia, confirming its generic status (Olmstead et al., 2022). Alternative taxonomic treatments, such as the proposal to synonymize Nicoteba under Adenocalymma (D. G. J., 2020), have not been widely adopted in current checklists (POWO, 2024; WFO, 2024). A few species are occasionally cultivated as ornamental vines in tropical gardens for their showy flowers, though they remain relatively obscure in the horticultural trade (Lorenzi & Sazima, 2009). Habitat loss due to deforestation and forest fragmentation threatens several narrow‑range taxa, and a formal IUCN assessment is lacking (Brazil Flora Red List, 2021). Future work integrating phylogenomics and field surveys will be essential to clarify species limits and conservation priorities.

Pick a Species to see its components: