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

Rubiaceae - Ixoroideae - Gardenieae - Diplosporinae - Tricalysia A.Rich. ex DC.

Description :

  • Shrubs or small trees
  • Leaves petiolate, elliptic or lanceolate, glabrous or hairy; stipules sheathing, crowned by two awns
  • Flowers sessile, in several-flowered, opposite, axillary cymes; bracts present, rarely connate and enveloping calyx
  • Calyx variable, 4-6-toothed, sometimes 2-lipped; tube campanulate or saucer-shaped; with short, truncate or dentate limb tube
  • Corolla 4-7-lobed, white, cream or rose; lobes ± elliptic, shorter than or ± as long as tube, sometimes apiculate; contorted to left; tube cylindric, funnel-shaped or deeply campanulate, variably hairy or glabrous
  • Stamens 4-8, arising in corolla mouth, exserted; filaments short; anthers medifixed, linear, sometimes with apical appendage
  • Disc swollen, annular
  • Ovary 2-locular, with 1 to many ovules embedded in placenta attached to septum; style terete, exserted; stigma 2-lobed
  • Fruit drupaceous, ± pea-sized
  • Seeds ± half-moon-shaped, reticulate, sometimes pustulate
  • x = 11

Nomenclature:

  • Tricalysia A.Rich. ex DC.
    • Candolle: 445 (1830)
    • Hooker: 95 (1873)
    • Hiern: 117 (1877)
    • Phillips: 727 (1951)
    • Robbrecht: 259 (1979)
    • Bridson & Verdcourt: 540 (1988)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 100, tropical regions of the Old World
  • Southern Africa : Species 7, N Namibia, N Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BRIDSON, D.M. & VERDCOURT, B. 1988. Flora of tropical East Africa . Rubiaceae (part 2)
  • CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1830. Prodromus 4. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
  • HIERN, W.P. 1877. Rubiaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 3
  • HOOKER, J.D. 1873. Rubiaceae . In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 2. L. Reeve, London
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • ROBBRECHT, E. 1979. The African genus Tricalysia A.Rich. ( Rubiaceae - Coffeeae ). 1. A revision of the species of subgenus Empogona . Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique 49