Anchietea

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Anchietea is a small group of flowering plants in the violet family (Violaceae) found in tropical South America. The plants are climbing or creeping shrubs with leaves that are oblong-lanceolate to oval. Flowers can be unisexual or bisexual and grow in small clusters in the leaf axils. They have white to orange petals and are strongly bilaterally symmetrical. The lower petal often has a projecting spur. The flowers have six stamens with fused filaments; the two lowest anthers are spurred, and the style is beaked. The fruit is a very thin-walled bladder-like capsule that carries many small, round, flattened seeds, usually with a ridge or wing around the edge.

Anchietea is named after the 16th-century Jesuit missionary Joseph of Anchieta. The genus was first described in 1824. The number of species has varied over time; today many scientists recognize around six species, including Anchietea pyrifolia as a key species. Recent work has added A. ferrucciae and A. ballardii, expanding the list.

Anchietea grows outside the Amazon, in seasonally dry tropical forests of South America.