Bikkia tetrandra

Form: Grows as an erect, branching shrub on sea-exposed limestone cliffs.{{Cite web |title=Bikkia tetrandra |url=https://www.gpepp.org/bikkia-tetrandra |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=Guam Plant Extinction Prevention Program |language=en-US}}

Stem: Pale bark

Leaves: Leaves grow in an opposite arrangement from the tips of branches, with every leaf pair offset from the pair above it and below it. Stipules are D-shaped with a small point.{{Cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/guam-flora-fauna/5109402442|title=Bikkia testrandra|last1=Gutierrez|first1=Lauren|date=2010-10-24|orig-date=Taken 13 August 2010|website=Flickr|location=San Francisco,California|language=en|access-date=2024-11-27}} Leaves have short petioles attaching them to the stem. Leaves have no lobes, are glabrous (smooth), obovate (narrower at the base than the tip), with an obtuse angle at the tips. The leaves have a pale midvein.{{Cite book |last=Linné |first=Carl von |url=https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/records/item/11485-supplementum-plantarum |title=Supplementum plantarum; Systematis vegetabilium, editionis decimae tertiae; Generum plantarum, editionis sextae; et Specierum plantarum, editionis secundae |publisher=Brunsvigae: Impensis Orphanotrophei |year=1781 |pages=143 |language=la |trans-title=Supplementation of plants; Systematics of plants, thirteenth edition; Genera of plants, sixth edition; and Species of Plants, second edition}}

Flower: Flowers arise from the stem in an axillary arrangement (budding from between the leaf and stem), connected by 1 to a few short pedicels. At the base of the flower is a four-toothed calyx. The white flower has a long tubular shape, expanding out at the end like a trumpet. Petals are squared off. There are four long anthers but they do not extend beyond the flower.

Fruit: 2-celled capsules that are fibrous, woody, and elongated. Seed capsules of Bikkia tetrandra are much larger than other Bikkia species (see illustration for comparison to other Bikkia species, with Bikkia tetrandra (#12) being at a lower magnification than the others{{Clarify|date=November 2024|reason=Which illustration?}}).

Seeds: Large number of tiny black seeds.

In 1781, the species was first described in the scientific literature and named Portlandia tetrandra by Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus the Younger, based on samples collected from Niue (then known as Savage Island). The species name, tetrandra, indicates the four stamens.{{Cite web |title=Definition of TETRANDRIA |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Tetrandria |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}} This treatment was repeated by Georg Forster in 1786.{{Cite book |last=Forster, M.D. |first=Georg |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/41812#page/23/mode/1up |title=Florulae insularum Australium: Prodromus |date=1786 |publisher=Joann. Christian Dietrich |location=Gottingae [Göttingen, Germany] |pages=15 |language=de|trans-title=Flowers of the Southern Islands: Introduction}}

The French botanist, Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré, collected numerous samples of the plant during his voyage to the Pacific from 1817 to 1820.{{Cite book |last1=Société botanique de France. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/273039#page/46/mode/1up |title=Bulletin de la Société botanique de France |last2=France |first2=Société botanique de |last3=scientifique (France) |first3=Centre national de la recherche |date=1866 |publisher=La Société |volume=v.13 (1866) |location=Paris |pages=42 |language=fr}} Additional specimens were collected by French naturalists, Jacques Bernard Hombron and Élie Jean François Le Guillou during the 1837–1840 Dumont-d'Urville expedition aboard the Astrolabe.

In 1829, French botanist, M. Achille Richard, changed the name to Bikkia tetrandra and provided his own description. Both Linnaeus (who first described the species) and Richard (who gave the plant its current binomial name), are listed as the botanical authorities: thus "Bikkia tetrandra (L.f.) A.Rich." Richard noted the species to be distinct from the Portlandia genus because of the four parts of various parts of its flower and by the limbs of its calyx having four teeth rather than five deep divisions.{{Cite book |last=Richard |first=M. Achille |url=https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/records/item/14673-memoire-sur-la-famille-des-rubiacees |title=Mémoire sur la famille rubiacées, contenant les caractères des genres de cette famille et d'un grand nombre d'espèces nouvelles |date=1829 |publisher=J. Tastu |location=Paris |publication-date=1830 |pages=151 |language=fr |trans-title=Memoir on the Rubiaceae family, containing the characteristics of the genera of this family and of a large number of new species}}

In 1866, the French botanist, Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart, reviewing the numerous specimens from Gaudichaud, Hombron and Le Guillou, proposed splitting the species into five separate species: B. forsteriana from Niue and Solomon Islands, B. mariannensis from Guam, B. guilloviana in New Guinea, B. hombroniana from Tonga, and B. gaudichaudiana from Waigeo, Tahiti, and New Guinea.{{Cite book |last=Brongniart |first=M. Ad. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/273039#page/45/mode/1up |title=Bulletin de la Société botanique de France |date=1866 |publisher=Société botanique de France |volume=13 |location=Paris |pages=40–43 |language=fr |trans-title=Bulletin of the Botanical Society of France}}

In 1919, English botanist, Spencer Le Marchant Moore, wrote that the plants from the Mariana Islands (known at the time as B. mariannensis) differed from the plants from Isle of Pines, New Caledonia (which he called B. comptonii), with the Mariana Islands plants having narrower and thinner leaves, differently shaped calyx segments, a longer corolla and elongated, clavate (hammer-shaped) stigma.{{Cite book |last=Le Marchant Moore |first=Spencer |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/8410#page/342/mode/1up |title=The Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany: Plants from New Caledonia |date=1919 |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green |volume=45 |location=London : the Society |publication-date=1920 |pages=325–327}}

In 1975, French botanist, André Aubréville, examined plants collected from Grand Terre and Isle of Pines in New Caledonia and provided an identification key to the Bikkia genus.{{Cite book |last1=Aubréville |first1=A. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/59850450#page/55/mode/1up |title=Adansonia |last2=Leroy |first2=Jean-F. |date=1975 |publisher=Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Laboratoire de Phanérogamie |edition=2 |volume=15 |location=Paris |pages=342–344 |language=fr}}

Various common names have been recorded. In 1819, Gaudichaud transliterated the Carolinian word for the plant into French as abamache.{{Cite book |last=Gaudichaud |first=Charles |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/98627#page/78/mode/1up |title=Voyage autour du monde, entrepris par ordre du roi. Exécuté sur les corvettes de S.M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne, pendant les années 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820 |date=1826 |publisher=Chez Pillet aîné |volume=4 |location=Paris |pages=63, 65 |language=fr}}

In 1819, Gaudichaud transliterated the Chamorro word for the plant on Guam into French as tchiouti. However, in modern usage, "chiute" is the name for a different species with large white flowers, Cerbera odollam.{{Cite web |last=Tuquero |first=Joseph |date=2019 |title=Chiute - Cerbera dilatata |url=https://www.uog.edu/_resources/files/extension/Chiute.pdf |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=University of Guam (UOG) Cooperative Extension & Outreach: Native Plants of Guam}} Safford later recorded the word gausuli in 1905 on Guam. Fosberg also recorded gau sali on Rota in 1993.{{Cite book |last1=Fosberg |first1=Raymond F. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/215190#page/58/mode/1up |title=Smithsonian Contributions to Botany: Flora of Micronesia, 5: Bignoniaceae-Rubiaceae |last2=Sachet |first2=Marie-Hélène |last3=Oliver |first3=Royce L. |date=1993 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |volume=81 |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=49–51}}

Safford reported in 1905 that the wood ignites easily and was used as torches.

File:Bikkia tetrandra.jpg|B. tetrandra (siale tafa), Tongatapu, Tonga

File:Bikkia tetrandra (fleur).jpg|B. tetrandra flower, Isle of Pines, New Caledonia

File:Bikkia tetrandra (gausåli), Tumon, Guam.jpg|B. tetrandra, Tumon, Guam

File:Bikkia tetrandra growing from its typical habitat of karst limestone, Tumon, Guam.jpg|B. tetrandra growing from its typical habitat of karst limestone, Tumon, Guam

File:Bikkia tetrandra developing seed capsules, Tumon, Guam.jpg|B. tetrandra developing seed capsules, Tumon, Guam

File:Bikkia tetrandra developing flowers, Guam.jpg|B. tetrandra developing flowers, Guam

File:Bikkia tetrandra seed capsules, Tumon, Guam.jpg|B. tetrandra seed capsules, Tumon, Guam

List of endemic plants in the Mariana Islands

{{Reflist}}

• Holotype: Portlandia tetrandra L.f., [https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/records/item/11485-supplementum-plantarum Suppl. Plant.] : 143 (1781); Forster, [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/41812#page/23/mode/1up Prodr]. : 15 (1786) 2.
• Hoffmannia amicorum Spreng., [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/30757#page/422/mode/1up Syst. Veg. 1] : 416 (1825).
• Bikkia grandiflora Reinw., [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/196481#page/20/mode/1up Syll. PI. Ratisb. 2] : 8 (1825 vel 1826), nom. illeg.
• Bikkia australis DC. var. forsteriana DC., Prod. 4 : 405 (1830).
• Bikkia australis DC. var. commersoniana DC., Le. ditto
• Bikkia tetrandra (L.f.) A.Rich, [https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/records/item/14673-memoire-sur-la-famille-des-rubiacees Mém. Fam. Rub.]: 151 (1830) [1829]; [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/24954#page/243/mode/1up Mém. Hist. Nat. Paris] 5 : 231 (1834).
• Bikkiopsis pancheri A. Brongn., [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/273118#page/421/mode/1up Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.] 12 : 405 (1865).
• Bikkia forsteriana A. Brongn., [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/273039#page/46/mode/1up Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.] 13 : 42 (1866)
• Cormigonus tetrandrus (L.f.) O. Kuntze, [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/7555#page/437/mode/1up Rev. Gen.] : 279 (1891).
• Cormigonus pancheri (A. Brongn.) O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. : 279 (1891).
• Bikkia pancheri (A. Brongn.) Guillaumin, in Lecomte, [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/7368#page/115/mode/1up Not. Syst.] 1 : 112 (1909).
• Ludovica thiebautii Vieill. ex Guillaumin, in syn., [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/162411#page/170/mode/1up Ann. Mus. Col. Marseille], ser. 2, 9 : 167 (1911), nom. nud.
• Bikkia comptonii S. Moore, [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/8410#page/342/mode/1up Journ. Linn. Soc., Bot.] 45 : 327 (1921).
• Bikkia tetrandra (L.f.) A. Richard., [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/59850450#page/55/mode/1up Adansonia] 15 : 342–344 (1976)

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tetrandra

Category:Flora of Papuasia

Category:Flora of the Pacific

Category:Plants described in 1782