Columnea ambigua
| Columnea ambigua | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Gesneriaceae |
| Genus: | Columnea |
| Species: | C. ambigua
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| Binomial name | |
| Columnea ambigua (Urb.) B.D.Morley
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Columnea ambigua, also known as tibey de cresta, is a species of epiphytic shrub endemic to the island of Puerto Rico. It adheres to rocks[2] in humid premontane and montane forests such as El Yunque.[3]
Description
Columnea ambigua has glossy, green, egg-shaped leaves and yellow flowers with green or red calyxes, supported by slender pedicels.[3] The floral morphology is assumed to be adaptive for hummingbird pollination.[4] The pollinated plant produces spherical, snow-white berries each around 7 mm in diameter.[3] Tibey de Cresta is distinguished from other Columnea species by the ratio between the length of the corolla tube and the length of the corolla lobe.[4]
Etymology
The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus for the 16th-century Italian botanist Fabio Colonna with the Latinized spelling Fabius Columnus.[5][6] The specific epithet ambigua comes from the Latin word ambiguus, meaning doubtful or uncertain.
Conservation
Tibey de Cresta was identified as a conservation concern by Miller et al. (2013), who gave it a provisional global rank of Near Threatened using the IUCN Red List criteria.[7]
References
- ^ "Columnea ambigua (Urb.) B.D.Morley". Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Richmond, England. Retrieved January 11, 2026.
- ^ Cook, Orator Fuller (1903). Economic plants of Porto Rico. US Government Printing Office.
- ^ a b c Britton, Nathaniel Lord; Gleason, Henry Allan; Seaver, Fred Jay; Hagelstein, Robert (1925). Botany of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. New York Academy of Sciences.
- ^ a b Smith, James F; Ooi, Maggie T-Y; Schulte, Lacie J; Campbell, Keron; Meikle, Judeen; Clark, John L (2019). "Evolution of the Caribbean Species of Columnea (Gesneriaceae) with an Emphasis on the Jamaican Species". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 180 (4): 271--285 – via The University of Chicago Press Online.
- ^ Anton Weber & Laurence E. Skog (July 13, 2007). "Columnea s.str. (sensu Wiehler 1983)". The Genera of Gesneriaceae. Basic information with illustration of selected species. Ed. 2. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
- ^ Stearn, W.T. (2004). Botanical Latin (4th ed). Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. p. 283. ISBN 9780881926279.
- ^ Miller, James S; Krupnick, Gary A; Stevens, Hannah; Porter-Morgan, Holly; Boom, Brian; others (2013). "Toward Target 2 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation: An Expert Analysis of the Puerto Rican Flora to Validate New Streamlined Methods for Assessing Conservation Status". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 99 (2): 199--205.