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

Molluginaceae - Psammotropha Eckl. & Zeyh.

Description :

  • Perennial subshrubs or cushion plants
  • Leaves alternate or in false whorls on stem, linear, subulate or ericoid, often crowded into basal rosette; stipules small and scarious, lacerate or 0
  • Inflorescence a terminal or seemingly axillary, umbellate to glomerulate cyme
  • Flowers small
  • Sepals 5, herbaceous, free, green, with membranous margins
  • Petals 0
  • Stamens 5
  • Ovary 3-5-locular; ovules 1 per locule; placentation basal; stigmas 3 or 5, ± free
  • Fruit a chartaceous, loculicidal capsule
  • Seeds granular

Nomenclature:

  • Psammotropha Eckl. & Zeyh.
    • Ecklon & Zeyher: 286 (1836)
    • Sonder: 146 (1860)
    • Phillips: 284 (1951)
    • Adamson: 51 (1959)
    • Jeffrey: 11 (1961)
    • Gonçalves: 535 (1978)
    • Endress & Bittrich: 419 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 11, mostly confined to southern Africa but with 2 extending further north, 1 into tropical Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 11, Northern Province, North-West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern and Western Cape

References:

  • ADAMSON, R.S. 1959. The South African species of Aizoaceae . VIII. Psammotropha . Journal of South African Botany 25
  • ECKLON, C.F. & ZEYHER, K.L.P. 1836. Enumeratio plantarum africae australis extratropicae . Perth & Besser, Hamburg
  • ENDRESS, M.E. & BITTRICH, V. 1993. Molluginaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
  • GONÇALVES, M.L. 1978. Molluginaceae . Flora zambesiaca 4
  • JEFFREY, C. 1961. Aizoaceae . Flora of tropical East Africa . Aizoaceae
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants, edn 2. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • SONDER, O.W. 1860. Caryophylleae . Flora capensis 1