Palisota
(named in honour of Palisot de Beauvois, 1752-1820, a French botanist and traveller). SYN. Duchekia. ORD. Commelinaceae. A genus comprising eight species of stove, perennial herbs, natives of tropical Africa. Flowers, small, numerous, disposed in simple, scorpioid cymes, sessile or shortly pedicellate; sepals and petals distinct, almost equal, similarly coloured, spreading; peduncles one or two in a leafy fascicle; panicle narrow, thyrsoid, oblong or cylindrical. Berries sometimes scarlet or blue. Leaves clustered at the tip of the stem; sheath imbricated, often long-pilose. The best-known species are described below. For culture, see Commelina.
P. Barteri (Barter's). fl. pale purplish, in an oblong, dense, thyrsoid raceme, borne on a short, terminal, solitary peduncle. Autumn. l. all radical, 1ft. to 2ft. long, obovate-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, narrowed into petioles of variable length, attenuated at the apex into a long, slender point, more or less silky-hairy. h. 1ft. to 3ft. 1862. Plant almost stemless. (B. M. 5318.) P. bicolor (two-coloured). l. oblong-obovate, tapering at the base to the stalk, and more abruptly towards the apex, 12in. to 14in. by 5in.; the upper surface bright green, with a broad, central disk of greenish-yellow; margins studded with stiff, brownish hairs; petiole fleshy, 4in. to 5in. long, with a broad, purplish band studded with coarse, brownish pubescence. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Fernando Po, 1878. An elegant, ornamental-leaved plant. P. bracteosa (bract-bearing). fl. white, resembling those of P. Barteri, woolly outside at base; panicle shortly peduncled, very dense, ovate. Autumn. l. narrow-obovate, acuminate, white-cobweb-woolly. 1879. Plant stemless.