Marianthus

Marianthus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus Marianthus are shrubs with twining branches, simple leaves arranged alternately along the stems. The flowers are pendent, arranged singly or in small groups in upper leaf axils or on the ends of branches with small bracts and bracteoles at the base, but that fall as the flowers open. The sepals are free from each other, and the petals are also sometimes free from each, otherwise joined at the base, forming a tube with spreading lobes. Plants in this genus were previously included in Billardiera, but have a stalked ovary and a long, usually curved style. The fruit is a dehiscent capsule containing many seeds.

The genus Marianthus was first originally established in 1837 by Stephan Endlicher in his Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel, and the first species he described (the type species) was M. candidus. In 1972, Eleanor Marion Bennett combined the genera Billardiera and Marianthus in Billardiera, in the journal Nuytsia, so that Marianthus became a synonym of Billardiera. The name Marianthus means "Virgin Mary-flower", on account of the white colour of M. candidus, the first species in the genus to be described.