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

Rubiaceae - Rubioideae - Hedyotideae - Pentodon Hochst.

Description :

  • Soft, straggling herbs in damp places
  • Leaves paired, sessile, lanceolate; stipules with short sheath, divided into 2-5 narrow fimbriae
  • Flowers dimorphic or not, in panicles or cymes; bracts subulate
  • Calyx persistent, 5-lobed; lobes lanceolate; tube shallowly campanulate
  • Corolla : tube funnel-shaped, densely villous within; lobes 5, ovate, shorter than tube, hairy on face
  • Stamens 5, arising ± in middle of corolla tube, included; anthers linear, subsessile
  • Disc 0
  • Ovary 2-locular, with many ovules in each locule attached to shortly stalked, shield-like placentas; style terete, exserted, glandular on lower half; stigma of 2 linear, glandular lobes
  • Fruit an ovoid-globose, smooth capsule
  • Seeds not becoming slimy when moistened, with swelling in lateral walls of testa cells
  • x = 9 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

  • Pentodon Hochst.
    • Hochstetter: 551 (1844)
    • Phillips: 722 (1951)
    • Bremekamp: 175 (1952)
    • Verdcourt: 263 (1976)
    • Verdcourt: 116 (1989)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 2, warm and tropical America, Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Seychelles
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Pentodon pentandrus (Schumach. & Thonn.) Vatke, N Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • BREMEKAMP. C.E.B. 1952. The African Oldenlandieae s.l. Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, afdeling Natuurkunde , sect. 2. 48, 2
  • HOCHSTETTER, C.F.F. 1844. Pflanzen des Cap- und Natal-Landes, gesammelt und zusammengestellt von Dr. Ferdinand Krauss. Flora 27
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • VERDCOURT, B. 1976. Flora of tropical East Africa . Rubiaceae (part 1)
  • VERDCOURT, B. 1989. Rubiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 5,1