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

Thymelaeaceae - Synaptolepis Oliv.

Description :

  • Shrubs, erect or scandent
  • Leaves alternate, membranous or subcoriaceous
  • Flowers solitary or fascicled in leaf axils, sessile or shortly pedicelled
  • Calyx 5-lobed; tube cylindric, at length swollen below, not articulated
  • Petals united into a short, erect, entire or obscurely 5-lobed ring at base of calyx lobes
  • Stamens 10, in 2 whorls in throat of calyx and not exceeding corolla; anthers with wide connective
  • Disc of minute scales or shortly cup-shaped and membranous
  • Ovary shortly stalked, 1-locular, with 1 ovule; style slender; stigma cylindric or capitate
  • Fruit dry, enclosed in persistent, ± fleshy base of calyx

Nomenclature:

  • Synaptolepis Oliv.
    • Oliver: 59, t. 1074 (1870)
    • Wright: 79 (1915)
    • Pearson: 245 (1910)
    • Domke: 122 (1934)
    • Peterson: 5 (1978)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 7, Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 2, Northern Province and mainly KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • DOMKE, W. 1934. Untersuchungen über die systematische und geographische Gliederung der Thymelaeaceen. Bibliotheca Botanica 27,3
  • OLIVER, D. 1870. Synaptolepis . Hooker's Icones Plantarum 11
  • PEARSON, H.H.W. 1910. Thymelaeaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 6,1
  • PETERSON, B. 1978. Flora of tropical East Africa . Thymelaeaceae
  • WRIGHT, C.H. 1915. Thymelaeaceae . Flora capensis 5,2