Hillia Jacq. (Rubiaceae: Hillieae) Charlotte M. Taylor [webpage] Missouri Botanical Garden P.O. Box 299 St. Louis, MO 63166 Hillia parasitica in Puerto Rico Hillia Jacq. includes 24 species of succulent, usually epiphytic shrubs and small trees distributed widely in the New World tropics. Hillia plants are found in wet tropical forests, from low to montane elevations. The genus can be recognized by its combination of well developed, interpetiolar, oblanceolate to obovate stipules that are held erect and flattened together in bud, its succulent leaves with the secondary venation usually not visible, its usually relatively large corollas with well developed tubes and 4-10 lobes that are convolute in bud, and its cylindrical woody capsules that contain numerous flat papery seeds with a tuft of silky filaments 1-3 cm long on one end. The seeds are apparently wind-dispersed; a similar arrangement, with a tuft of trichomes at one end, is found in one other genus of neotropical epiphytes, Didymochlamys Hook.f. The flowers vary from salverform to broadly tubular, and range from diurnal and red to nocturnal and white, green, or yellow-green. Species of Hillia can be confused with those of Cosmibuena Ruiz & Pav. Cosmibuena differs in its stipules that are shortly united around the stem (vs. separate in Hillia) and its seeds without Hillia's tuft of filaments. Hillia was monographed by Taylor (1994a), who included in it the Central American genus Ravnia (Taylor, 1989) and recognized five subgenera. Key to the Subgenera of Hillia 1. Corollas funnelform to tubular or inflated, salmon to bright red or green sometimes flushed with yellow, pink, orange, or dull purple. 2. Corollas funnelform, green sometimes flushed with yellow, pink, orange, or dull purple; Costa Rica to southeastern Brazil... Subg. Illustres (7 spp.) 2. Corollas funnelform to tubular or inflated in the middle, salmon to bright red; southern Mexico to northwestern Colombia and 1 species in northeastern Venezuela...Subg. Ravnia (5 spp.) 1. Corollas salverform, white to pale green or sometimes flushed with pink. 3. Corolla lobes 4; stigmas linear, positioned below the anthers; Antilles and southern Mexico to northwestern South America... Subg. Tetrandrae (5 spp.) 3. Corolla lobes 5-6; stigmas subcapitate to linear, positioned above or below the anthers. 4. Stamens inserted near middle of corolla tube; stigmas linear, positioned below anthers; Ecuador and Peru...Subg. Andinae (1 sp.) 4. Stamens inserted near top of corolla tube; stigmas subcapitate to shortly linear, positioned just above anthers; Antilles and widespread in South America...Subg. Hillia (6 spp.) References Taylor, C.M. 1989. Revision of Hillia subg. Ravnia (Rubiaceae: Cinchonoideae). Selbyana 11: 26-34. Taylor, C.M. 1991. Two new species of Hillia subg. Ravnia (Rubiaceae) from Venezuela and Mexico. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 78: 521-523. Taylor, C.M. 1994a. Revision of Hillia (Rubiaceae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 81: 571-609. Taylor, C.M. 1994b. Revision of Cosmibuena (Rubiaceae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 81: 571-609. TOP List of Names and Synonyms of Hillia The following list is based on monograpic work in this genus. Accepted names are presented in bold; synonymous names appear with an equals sign. The subgenerus to which a species belongs is indicated by a letter in parentheses after its name: A for subg. Andinae, H for subg. Hillia, I for subg. Illustres, R for subg. Ravnia, T for subg. Tetrandrae. Further information on these names can be found in the TROPICOS database [http://www.tropicos.org/]. Cosmibuena acuminata Ruiz & Pav. = Hillia parasitica Cosmibuena rhizophorae Standl. = Hillia maxonii Fereirea vellozana Schult. & Schult.f. = Hillia parasitica Hillia allenii C.M. Taylor (R), Panama Hillia boliviana Britton = Hillia parasitica Hillia bonoi Steyerm. (H), Venezuela Hillia brasiliensis Cham. & Schltdl. = Hillia parasitica Hillia chiapensis Standl. = Hillia panamensis Hillia chiapensis subsp. grandifolia Dwyer = Hillia palmana Hillia chiriquiensis Dywer = Cosmibuena valerii Hillia costanensis Steyerm. (I), Venezuela Hillia foldatsii Steyerm. (I), Venezuela Hillia goudotii Standl. = Hillia illustris Hillia grayumii C.M. Taylor (I), Costa Rica Hillia hathewayi Fosberg = Hillia panamensis Hillia illustris (Vell.) K. Schum. (I), Colombia to Bolivia and Brazil Hillia irwinii Steyerm. = Hillia ulei Hillia killipii Standl. (H), Ecuador, Peru Hillia liguliflora = Cosmibuena valerii Hillia longifilamentosa (Steyerm.) C.M. Taylor (R), Costa Rica, Panama Hillia longiflora Blanco = Elytranthe ampullacea (Loranthaceae) Hillia longiflora Hort. ex Lem. = Fagraea zeylanica Thunb. (Loganiaceae) Hillia longiflora Sw. = Hillia parasitica Hillia loranthoides Standl. (T), Mexico, Costa Rica Hillia macbridei Standl. (A), Ecuador, Peru Hillia macrocarpa Standl. & Steyerm. = Hillia loranthoides Hillia macromeris Standl. (H), Colombia to Peru Hillia macrophylla Standl. (H), Costa Rica to Peru Hillia maguirei Steyerm. = Hillia parasitica Hillia marcano-bertii Steyerm. = H. macrophylla Hillia maxonii Standl. (T), Nicaragua to Panama Hillia microcarpa Steyerm. = Hillia parasitica Hillia oaxacana C.M. Taylor (R), Mexico Hillia odorata K. Krause = Hillia parasitica Hillia palmana Standl. (T), Nicaragua to Panama Hillia panamensis Standl. (T), Mexico to Panama Hillia parasitica Jacq. (H), Antilles and widespread in South America Hillia parasitica var. nobilis (Vell.) Steyerm. = Hillia parasitica Hillia psammophila Steyerm. (I), Venezuela Hillia rivalis C.M. Taylor (R), Venezuela Hillia saldanhae K. Schum. (I), Brazil Hillia schultesii Steyerm. = Hillia ulei Hillia tetrandra Sw. (T), Antilles, Mexico to Nicaragua Hillia triflora (Oerst.) C.M. Taylor (R), Nicaragua to Panama Hillia triflora var. pittieri (Standl.) C.M. Taylor (R), Costa Rica to northwestern Colombia Hillia trinitensis R.O. Williams & Cheeseman = Hillia illustris Hillia tubaeflora Cham. = Hillia illustris Hillia tuxtlensis Sessé & Moç. = Hillia tetrandra Hillia ulei K. Krause (I), Panama, widespread in South America Hillia valerii Standl. = Cosmibuena valerii Hillia viridiflora Kuhlm. & Silveira = Hillia ulei Hillia weberbaueri Standl. = Hillia parasitica Hillia wurdackii Steyerm. (H), Ecuador, Peru Hillia zuliaensis Steyerm. = Hillia costanensis Lagenanthus parviflora Ewan (as Gentianaceae) = Hillia triflora var. pittieri Posoqueria montana Mart. = Hillia parasitica Ravnia longifilamentosa Steyerm. = Hillia longifilamentosa Ravnia panamensis Steyerm. = Hillia allenii Ravnia pittieri = Hillia triflora var. pittieri Ravnia triflora Oerst. = Hillia triflora Saldanha illustris Vell. = Hillia illustris Saldanha nobilis Vell. = Hillia parasitica Text and Images, unless otherwise indicated, Copyright © by Charlotte M. Taylor. All rights reserved. This webpage was revised on April 8, 2008. TOP