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

Amaranthaceae - Amaranthoideae - Amarantheae - Aervinae - Achyranthes L.

Description :

  • Erect perennial herbs, sometimes bushy or scandent, sometimes flowering in first year
  • Leaves opposite, entire, petiolate
  • Inflorescence a ± slender, simple or branched, elongated solitary or fasciculate spike up to 0.3 m long, terminal on stem and branches, flowers at first congested and ± patent, finally usually laxer and deflexed; bracts deltoid, ovate or acuminate, midrib excurrent in a spine, deflexed in fruit, persistent
  • Flowers bisexual, solitary in axils of bracts; bracteoles 2, spinous-aristate with excurrent midrib, lamina forming short and free to longer and adnate membranous wings; entire flower with bracteoles falling with ripening of seed
  • Tepals 4 or 5, 1-3(-5)-nerved, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, mucronate with excurrent midrib, indurated in fruit especially at base
  • Stamens 2-5; filaments filiform, monadelphous at base, alternating with usually fringed pseudostaminodes; anthers 2-thecous
  • Ovary turbinate or obovoid; ovule solitary from apex of an elongated basal funicle; style cylindrical, variable in length; stigma capitellate
  • Capsule thin-walled, indehiscent
  • Seed cylindrical; perisperm/endosperm copious
  • x = 7 (aneuploids, high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Achyranthes L.
    • Linnaeus: 204 (1753)
    • Linnaeus: 96 (1754)
    • Brown: 417 (1810)
    • Hooker: 35 (1880)
    • Schinz: 112 (1893)
    • Baker & Clarke: 62 (1909)
    • Cooke & Wright: 427 (1910)
    • Adamson: 361 (1950)
    • Bullock: 73 (1957)
    • Cavaco: 302 (1958)
    • Cavaco: 114 (1962)
    • Podlech: 4 (1966)
    • Henderson & Anderson: 102 (1966)
    • Townsend: 145 (1973)
    • Townsend: 473 (1974)
    • Townsend: 100 (1985)
    • Townsend: 105 (1988)
    • Townsend: 163 (1993a)
    • Townsend: 87 (1993b)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 6-8, warm temperate and tropical regions of the Old World
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Achyranthes aspera L. with 3 varieties, widespread and very variable in robustness

References:

  • ADAMSON, R.S. 1950. Amaranthaceae Lindl. In R.S. Adamson & T.M. Salter, Flora of the Cape Peninsula . Juta, Cape Town
  • BAKER, J.G. & CLARKE, C.B. 1909. Amarantaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 6,1
  • BROWN, R. 1810. Amarantaceae Juss. Prodromus florae novae Hollandiae et Insulae van-Diemen 1. Johnson & Co., London
  • BULLOCK, A.A. 1957. The application of the generic name Achyranthes . Kew Bulletin 1957
  • CAVACO, A. 1958. Les Achyranthes ( Amaranthaceae ) du continent Africain et des îles adjacentes. Boletim da Sociedade Broteriana 32
  • CAVACO, A. 1962. Les Amaranthaceae de l'Afrique au sud du Tropique du Cancer et de Madagascar. Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris , Série B, Botanique 13
  • COOKE, T. & WRIGHT, C.H. 1910. Amarantaceae . Flora capensis 5,1
  • HENDERSON, M.D. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa 37
  • HOOKER, J.D. 1880. Amarantaceae . In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 3,1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1754. Genera plantarum , edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • PODLECH, D. 1966. Amaranthaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 33
  • SCHINZ, H. 1893. Amarantaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien III,1a
  • TOWNSEND, C.C. 1973. Notes on Amaranthaceae 1. Kew Bulletin 28
  • TOWNSEND, C.C. 1974. Notes on Amaranthaceae 2. Kew Bulletin 29
  • TOWNSEND, C.C. 1985. Flora of tropical East Africa . Amaranthaceae
  • TOWNSEND, C.C. 1988. Amaranthaceae . Flora zambesiaca 9,1
  • TOWNSEND, C.C. 1993a. Amaranthaceae . Flora of Somalia 1
  • TOWNSEND, C.C. 1993b. Amaranthaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin

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