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

Asteraceae - Heliantheae - Sclerocarpus Jacq.

Description :

  • Annual herbs with branches striate and sparsely pilose
  • Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate, ovate or lanceolate, entire or remotely toothed, strigose beneath
  • Capitula radiate, solitary, peduncled, terminal
  • Involucre campanulate; bracts in 1 row, leafy
  • Receptacle small; paleae cymbiform, clasping florets, becoming contracted above cypsela into ± tubular neck
  • Ray florets neuter; corolla yellow; tube longer than lamina, sparsely glandular-hairy; lamina obovate, shortly bilobed
  • Style 0
  • Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow, tubular, slightly widening upwards, 5-lobed; lobes small, linear, sparsely pilose on back
  • Anthers rounded or pointed at base, with linear appendage
  • Cypselas obovate, sometimes oblique above
  • Pappus annular or 0
  • x = 6, 11 (7, 9, 13) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Sclerocarpus Jacq.
    • Jacquin: t. 176 (1782)
    • Bentham: 364 (1873)
    • Oliver & Hiern: 374 (1877)
    • Phillips: 814 (1951)
    • Merxmüller: 161 (1967)
    • Wild: 37 (1967)
    • Karis & Ryding: 604 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 8, in Central America, Mexico and Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Sclerocarpus africanus Jacq. ex Murr., northern parts of Namibia and Botswana

References:

  • BENTHAM, G. 1873. Compositae . In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera Plantarum 2. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
  • JACQUIN, N.J.B. VON. 1782. Icones plantarum rariorum . Wappler, Vienna
  • KARIS, P.O. & RYDING, O. 1994. Tribes Helenieae and Heliantheae . In K. Bremer, Asteraceae , cladistics and classification . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
  • MERXMÜLLER, H. 1967. Asteraceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 139
  • OLIVER, D & HIERN, W.P. 1877. Compositae . Flora of tropical Africa 3
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants, edn 2. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • WILD, H. 1967. The Compositae of the Flora zambesiaca area, 1. Kirkia 6