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

Fabaceae - Papilionoideae - Sophoreae - Calpurnia E.Mey.

Description :

  • Shrubs or small trees
  • Leaves imparipinnate with 3-many pairs of leaflets, pulvinate; stipules small; leaflets frequently mucronate, exstipellate
  • Flowers yellow in few- to many-flowered, axillary or terminal racemes, frequently in panicles
  • Calyx with campanulate tube, 5-lobed, with 2 upper lobes smallest and partly connate
  • Petals : vexillum clawed, with claw deeply channelled and limb reflexed and bilobed; wings clawed, oblong, obtuse; keel clawed, obtuse
  • Stamens free or connate at base; anthers small, oblong
  • Ovary stalked, several-ovuled; style arcuate, with small, capitate stigma
  • Pod usually broadly linear, sometimes with a narrow wing on ventral suture, tipped with the remains of style
  • Seeds compressed, ovate-oblong, with small hilum near the narrow end; radicle incurved
  • x = 9

Nomenclature:

  • Calpurnia E.Mey.
    • Meyer: 2 (1836)
    • Harvey: 266 (1862)
    • Phillips: 475 (1917)
    • Brummitt: 123 (1967)
    • Polhill: 46 (1971)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 16, Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species ± 7, the four northern provinces, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BRUMMITT, R.K. 1967. Calpurnia aurea (Ait.) Benth., a Cape species in Tropical Africa and Southern India. Kirkia 6
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1862. Leguminosae . Flora capensis 2
  • MEYER, E.H.F. 1836. Commentariorum de plantis Africae australioris 2. Voss, Leipzig
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1917. The Genus Calpurnia , E.Mey. ( Leguminosae ). Annals of the South African Museum 9
  • POLHILL, R.M. 1971. Flora of tropical East Africa . Leguminosae (part 3). Papilionoideae