Ibicella lutea

Ibicella lutea (Lindl.) Van Eselt. (syn.: Proboscidea lutea (Lindl.) Stapf, Martynia lutea Lindl.) (S-Am.) – A rare and ephemeral alien. Recorded several times as wool alien in the valley of river Vesdre between 1894 and 1947, on gravelly river banks but also on waste land (Visé 1958, Verloove 2006). Also elsewhere in Europe Ibicella lutea was a regular wool alien in the 19th and 20th century (e.g. Lousley 1961). It was most recently documented from Liège in 1992 when a single individual was seen, apparently germinating from a long-buried seed bank of unknown origin (Lambinon & al. 1993). In 2017 a dry seed pod was found on the sea shore of De Panne (provenance unknown).
Ibicella lutea is a noxious weed in parts of the Old World. In Australia it is declared a prohibited seed species with no tolerance level (Jacob & al. 2004).

Selected literature:


Armstrong W.P. (1979) Unicorn plants in California. Fremontia 7(1): 16-22.

Hecht Markou P. (1999) Das Vorkommen der Proboscidea louisianica in Griechenland und zwar auf der Insel Lesbos. Ann. Mus. Goulandris 10: 73-78.

Jacob H.S., Randall R. & Lloyd S. (2004) Front door wide open to weeds: an examination of the weed species permitted for import without risk assessment. WWF Australia. [available online at: http://awsassets.wwf.org.au/downloads/sp077_front_door_wide_open_to_weed...

Lambinon J., Frisque G. & Fontenelle E. (1993) Une plante aux fruits étranges apparue a Liège: Ibicella lutea (Martyniaceae). Nat. Mosana 43(2): 79-82.

Le Bourgeois T., Rodriguez A., Véla E., Marnotte P. & Fried G. (2017) Focus sur une espèce : Ibicella lutea (Lindl.) Vand Eselt : Nouvelle observation d’une curieuse plante dans la Haute-Garonne. Journal de Botanique 79: 53-55.

Lousley J.E. (1961) A census list of wool aliens found in Britain, 1946-1960. Proceedings of the Botanical Society of the British Isles 4: 221-247. [available online at: http://archive.bsbi.org.uk/Proc4p221.pdf]

Verloove F. (2006) Catalogue of neophytes in Belgium (1800-2005). Scripta Botanica Belgica 39: 89 p. [available online at: http://alienplantsbelgium.be/sites/alienplantsbelgium.be/files/tabel_2.pdf]

Visé A. (1958) Florule adventice de la vallée de la Vesdre. Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 90: 287-305.

Yannitsaros A. & Bazos I. (2006) Ibicella (Stapf) Van Eseltine: a genus of the American family Martyniaceae new to Greece. Ann. Musei Goulandris 11: 271-279. [available online at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274193329_Ibicella_Stapf_Van_Es...

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith