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

Achariaceae - Ceratiosicyos Nees

Description :

  • Slender, herbaceous climbers, with or without tendrils
  • Leaves usually palmately 5-7-lobed, with lobes acuminate and serrate, rarely simple, usually long-petioled
  • Male flowers in short racemes; sepals 4 or 5, linear, spreading; corolla 4- or 5-lobed, tube campanulate, lobes ± as long as tube, ovate-oblong, ciliate, cohering by cilia; stamens 5, arising at base of corolla tube, alternating with ellipsoid glands, adnate to corolla tube, filaments slightly dilated upwards, anthers oblong, cohering; ovary absent
  • Female flowers solitary; calyx rudimentary; corolla as for male; stamens absent; glands 5, linear, ± 3/4 length of corolla tube; ovary shortly stalked, ± cylindric, with several ovules on 4 or 5 parietal placentas; styles 4, short, 2-lobed
  • Fruit a 4- or 5-valved, elongate, ribbed capsule
  • Seeds several, subglobose, narrowly winged above, tubercled

Nomenclature:

  • Ceratiosicyos Nees
    • Nees ab Esenbeck: 281 (1836)
    • Harvey: 501 (1862)
    • Marloth: 199 (1925)
    • Killick: 128 (1976)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Monotypic: Ceratiosicyos laevis (Thunb.) A.Meeuse, endemic, Namibia, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern and Western Cape

References:

  • HARVEY, 1862. Passifloreae . Flora capensis 2
  • KILLICK, D.J.B. 1976. Achariaceae . Flora of southern Africa 22
  • MARLOTH, R. 1925. The flora of South Africa 2, 2. Darter, Cape Town
  • NEES AB ESENBECK, C.G. 1836. Passifloreae . In C.F. Ecklon & K.L.P. Zeyher, Enumeratio plantarum Africae Australis extratropicae . Perthes & Besser, Hamburg