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

Euphorbiaceae - Phyllanthoideae - Phyllantheae - Pseudolachnostylis Pax

Description :

  • Trees or shrubs; dioecious, rarely monoecious
  • Leaves alternate, petiolate, entire, somewhat coriaceous; stipulate
  • Inflorescence of male flowers in few-flowered, pedunculate cymes, surrounded by bracts; female flowers axillary, usually solitary
  • Petals 0
  • Male flowers : sepals 5(6), imbricate; disc annular, glabrous; stamens (4)5-7; filaments connate for greater part of their length; ovary rudimentary, 2-fid
  • Female flower : sepals as in male, with circumscissile dehiscence; disc ± basin-shaped, partially surrounding ovary; ovary 3-locular, with 2 ovules in each locule, often densely villous; styles 3, slightly connate at base, bilobed
  • Fruit globose, tardily septicidally dehiscent, subdrupaceous; exocarp smooth, shiny, becoming wrinkled on drying; endocarp thick, woody
  • Seed solitary in each locule by abortion, ellipsoid-ovoid, ecarunculate; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad and flat

Nomenclature:

  • Pseudolachnostylis Pax
    • Pax: 19 (1899)
    • Hutchinson: 407 (1920)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 80 (1987)
    • Webster: 41 (1994)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 22 (1996)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Pseudolachnostylis maprouneifolia Pax with 4 varieties, Africa; Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province and Mpumalanga

References:

  • HUTCHINSON, J. 1920. Euphorbiaceae [in part]. Flora capensis 5, 2
  • PAX, F. 1899. Euphorbiaceae africanae V. Botanische Jahrbücher 28
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1987. Euphorbiaceae . Flora of tropical East Africa . Euphorbiaceae Part 1
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1996. Euphorbiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 9, 4
  • WEBSTER, G.L. 1994. Synopsis of the genera and suprageneric taxa of Euphorbiaceae . Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 81