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

Euphorbiaceae - Phyllanthoideae - Wielandieae - Heywoodia Sim

Description :

  • Trees; dioecious
  • Leaves alternate, large, entire; stipules 0
  • Male flowers in dense, axillary glomerules; sepals 3, imbricate, unequal; petals 5, membranous, imbricate, larger than sepals; disc shortly cupular, fleshy, with margins irregularly undulate; stamens 8-12, inserted inside disc, 2-seriate; outer stamens free, inner ones connate at base; anthers 2-thecous, with thecae somewhat distinct; ovary rudimentary, 3-fid
  • Female flowers : sepals and petals ± as in male flowers; ovary 4- or 5-locular, 2 ovules per locule; stigmas 4 or 5, sessile, bilobed
  • Fruit a capsule, subglobose, 4-locular, with 8-10 wrinkled (when dried) valves; endocarp bony
  • Seeds solitary per locule by abortion, somewhat trigonous, smooth, brown, ecarunculate; endosperm papery; embryo minute, cotyledons broad and flat

Nomenclature:

  • Heywoodia Sim
    • Sim: 326, t.140, fig.1 (1907)
    • Hutchinson: 384 (1915)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 85 (1987)
    • Webster: 36 (1994)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 6 (1996)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 1: Heywoodia lucens Sim, tropical East Africa
  • Ssouthern Africa : KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • HUTCHINSON, J. 1915. Euphorbiaceae [in part]. Flora capensis 5, 2
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1987. Euphorbiaceae . Flora of tropical East Africa . Euphorbiaceae Part 1
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1996. Euphorbiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 9, 4
  • SIM, T.R. 1907. The forests and forest flora of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope . Taylor & Henderson, Aberdeen
  • WEBSTER, G.L. 1994. Synopsis of the genera and suprageneric taxa of Euphorbiaceae . Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 81