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

Rubiaceae - Rubioideae - Hedyotideae - Carphalea Juss.

Description :

  • Shrubs, glabrous or pubescent; stems subterete, erect, branched
  • Leaves paired or in whorls of 3, shortly petiolate, tricuspidate or 3-5-setose; stipules with 3-5 linear or filiform colleter-tipped setae from a short base adnate to petioles
  • Flowers dimorphic; in terminal corymbose heads
  • Calyx entire or 4- or 5-lobed, becoming white; tube small, campanulate; limb strongly accrescent, oblique, dilated, reticulated, shallow
  • Corolla 5-lobed, valvate, white; tube elongated, densely hairy in throat
  • Stamens 5, arising from throat or corolla, included or exserted; anthers linear-oblong
  • Disc fleshy
  • Ovary 2(3)-locular, each locule with a slender basal placenta bearing ± 4-6 ovules; style filiform; stigma with 2(4) filiform lobes
  • Fruit apparently always indehiscent, obconic, strongly ribbed, ribs running out into accrescent calyx lobes, 1- or 2-seeded
  • Seeds narrowly oblong-obconic
  • x = 11

Nomenclature:

  • Carphalea Juss.
    • Jussieu: 198 (1789)
    • Verdcourt: 82 (1989)
  • Dirichletia Klotzsch
    • Klotzsch: 494 (1853)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 14, tropical Africa and Madagascar
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Carphalea pubescens (Klotzsch) Verdc., Namibia and Botswana

References:

  • JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Genera plantarum . Ziegler, Zürich
  • KLOTZSCH, J.F. 1853. Dirichletia . Monatsberichte der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1853
  • VERDCOURT, B. 1989. Rubiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 5,1