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

Campanulaceae - Merciera A.DC.

Description :

  • Dwarf undershrubs or shrublets, glabrous or hairy
  • Leaves somewhat ericoid, dense, often fascicled, ciliate
  • Flowers solitary, axillary, shortly pedicellate or subsessile; bracts 2
  • Calyx much shorter than corolla, glabrous, 4- or 5-lobed; tube very short or shallowly campanulate; lobes lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate
  • Corolla 4- or 5-lobed; tube long, slender, gradually widening upwards; lobes sometimes unequal, shorter than tube, sometimes glandular on inner face
  • Stamens 4 or 5, free from corolla, included; filaments filiform, pilose ± in the middle; anthers 2-thecous, linear
  • Ovary inferior, turbinate or subglobose, 1-locular; or imperfectly 2-locular, with 4 erect ovules, pilose; style filamentous, exserted, swollen at base; stigma ellipsoid or clavate, of 2 fleshy, glandular or hairy lobes
  • Fruit a capsule, 1-seeded by abortion, crowned with persistent calyx

Nomenclature:

  • Merciera A.DC.
    • Candolle: 369, t. 5 (1830)
    • Adamson: 157 (1954)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 5, Western Cape

References:

  • ADAMSON, R.S. 1954. The genus Merciera A.DC. Journal of South African Botany 20
  • CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1830. Monographie des Campanulées . Desvay, Paris