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

Asteraceae - Lactuceae - *Tragopogon L.

Description :

  • Biennial or perennial herbs with milky latex
  • Leaves alternate, amplexicaul, entire, grass-like, glabrous
  • Capitula ligulate; solitary, terminal, long-peduncled
  • Involucre cylindric or narrowly campanulate; bracts in 1 row, lanceolate-acuminate, basally somewhat connate
  • Receptacle slightly convex, shallowly honeycombed, epaleate
  • Florets (ligules) bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow, blue or purple, strap-shaped, tube linear, slightly shorter than lamina, pilose at junction of lamina and tube; lamina broadly linear, truncate, 5-toothed
  • Anthers with base sagittate, auricles acute or shortly setaceous-acuminate
  • Style linear, becoming terete above, glandular-pubescent on cylindric portion; branches filiform, glandular
  • Cypselas fusiform, with slender beak, strongly ribbed; ribs tuberculate, pilose at apex, otherwise glabrous
  • Pappus of many plumose and intertwined bristles, often scabrid-barbellate apically
  • x = 6 (7) (polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

  • *Tragopogon L.
    • Linnaeus: 789 (1753)
    • Linnaeus: 346 (1754)
    • Phillips: 853 (1951)
    • Henderson & Anderson: 406 (1966)
    • Hilliard: 606 (1977)
    • Bremer: 201 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 50, temperate Eurasia, Mediterranean region
  • Southern Africa : Species 3, occur as weeds of cultivation, not known from Namibia and Botswana

References:

  • BREMER, K. 1994. Asteraceae , cladistics & classification . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
  • HENDERSON, M. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 37
  • HILLIARD, O.M. 1977. Compositae in Natal . University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg
  • LINNAEUS, C. VON. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • LINNAEUS, C. VON. 1754. Genera plantarum , edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants, edn 2. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25