e-Key v3 - Burchellia
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Rubiaceae - Ixoroideae - Gardenieae - Gardeniinae - Burchellia R.Br.

Description :

  • Shrubs or small trees
  • Leaves shortly petiolate, obovate-oblong, obtuse, leathery; stipules cuspidate, deciduous
  • Flowers in many-flowered clusters or heads
  • Calyx 5-lobed, pubescent within and without; lobes linear, longer than tube; tube campanulate
  • Corolla 5-lobed, lobes ovate, much shorter than tube; orange to dark red, hairy; tube funnel-shaped, with ring of hairs near base
  • Stamens 5, arising in upper part of corolla tube, included; anthers sessile, linear, with ovate, apical appendage
  • Disc tumid
  • Ovary 2-locular, with many ovules in each locule; style terete, ± included; stigma thick, lanceolate-elliptic, ribbed
  • Fruit a globose, 2-locular, many-seeded berry, crowned with persistent calyx
  • Seeds somewhat compressed, transversely oblong, with ± whorled ridges
  • x ± 11 (aneuploids)

Nomenclature:

  • Burchellia R.Br.
    • Brown: t. 466 (1820)
    • Sonder: 2 (1865)
    • Phillips: t. 145 (1924)
    • Phillips: 725 (1951)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Burchellia bubalina (L.f.) Sims, endemic, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BROWN, R. 1820. Burchellia capensis . Botanical Register 6. Ridgway, London
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1924. Burchellia bubalina . Flowering Plants of South Africa 4
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • SONDER, O.W. 1865. Rubiaceae . Flora capensis 3