Zaluzianskya is a genus of flowering plants now regarded as being a member of the Scrophulariaceae

Scrophulariaceae

Scrophulariaceae, the figwort family, are a family of flowering plants. The plants are annual or perennial herbs with flowers with bilateral or rarely radial symmetry. Members of the Scrophulariaceae have a cosmopolitan distribution, with the majority found in temperate areas, including...

, the figwort

Scrophularia

The genus Scrophularia of the family Scrophulariaceae comprises about 200 species of herbaceous flowering plants commonly known as figworts. Species of Scrophularia all share square stems, opposite leaves and open two-lipped flowers forming clusters at the end of their stems...

 family. The genus is endemic to Southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...

 and includes some described sixty species.

Taxonomy

Zaluzianskya was named in honour of Adam Zaluziansky von Zaluzian, 1558–1613, a physician of Prague, author of Methodus Herbariae, 1592 . Zaluziansky seems to have been a deservedly prominent botanist in his day, with some views on taxonomy quite advanced for his time.

Pollinators

Superficially the shape of the flowers is strikingly phlox

Phlox

Phlox is a genus of 67 species of perennial and annual plants found mostly in North America in diverse habitats from alpine tundra to open woodland and prairie. Some flower in spring, others in summer and autumn....

-like, hence the designation 'Night Phlox', for their evening fragrance. The fragrance after dark suggests that in nature the species in question are pollinated by moths, whereas day-pollinated species often have little or no obvious scent. Research is in progress on the ecological and evolutionary relationships between some members of the genus and specialist long-tongued pollinators, particularly night flying hawk moths (Family Sphingidae

Sphingidae

Sphingidae is a family of moths , commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms, that includes about 1,200 species . It is best represented in the tropics but there are species in every region . They are moderate to large in size and are distinguished among moths for their rapid,...

) and flies in the families Nemestrinidae

Nemestrinidae

Nemestrinidae, or tangle-veined flies is a family of flies in the superfamily Nemestrinoidea, closely related to Acroceridae. The family is small but distributed worldwide, with about 300 species in 34 genera. Larvae are endoparasitoids of either grasshoppers or scarab beetles...

, Tabanidae, and Bombyliidae

Bombyliidae

Bombyliidae is a large family of flies with hundreds of genera, although their life cycles are not well known. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, thus are pollinators of flowers. They superficially resemble bees, thus are commonly called bee flies, and this may offer the adults some...

.
Day-flying hawk moths, such as the genus Macroglossum (Hummingbird Hawk Moths) also seem to be significant pollinators of many species of Zaluzianskya.

Cultivation

Zaluzianskya species have not been of horticultural significance until recently. Zaluzianskya rubrostellata is cultivated as an annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

.

Species

Species include:

• Zaluzianskya affinis
• Zaluzianskya capensis
• Zaluzianskya ovata
• Zaluzianskya rubrostellata Night Phlox
• Zaluzianskya lychnidea (Windowphlox)
• Zaluzianskya pulvinata
• Zaluzianskya divaricata (Spreading night phlox).
• Zaluzianskya villosa (Southern Lilac Drumsticks, Blue Drumsticks)
• Zaluzianskya spathacea
• Zaluzianskya microsiphon.

External links

• Dave's Garden blog: Zaluzianskya