Annual, erect to suberect herbs, often glandular-viscid; with forked or fascicled branches
Leaves
pseudoverticillate, linear to filiform, with abbreviated leaf buds in their axils and appearing whorled; stipules small, scarious, caducous, 4 per leaf pair
Inflorescences
loose terminal dichasia; pedicels reflexed after flowering, erect in ripe fruit
Flowers
bisexual, subperigynous
Sepals
5, free, herbaceous and often ± fleshy, with scarious margins
Petals
5, entire, white
Stamens
10, arising on a perigynous ring
Ovary
1-locular; ovules many; styles (3-)5, alternating with sepals
Fruit
a capsule, ± globose, opening by 5 valves or teeth not separating completely
Seeds
many, grey-black, compressed, biconvex, very narrowly winged; embryo annular
x = 9 (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
*Spergula
L.
Linnaeus: 440 (1753)
Linnaeus: 199 (1754)
Sonder: 135 (1860)
Pax: 85 (1889)
Burtt Davy: 151 (1926)
Adamson: 394 (1950)
Turrill: 11 (1956)
Wild: 346 (1961)
Ratter: 154 (1964)
Henderson & Anderson: 140 (1966)
Podlech: 4 (1967)
Friedrich: 775 (1979)
Bittrich: 220 (1993)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 6; 5 in temperate Eurasia, chiefly in Europe and the Mediterranean
Southern Africa
: Species 1: *
Spergula arvensis
L., a cosmopolitan weed of waste places and cultivated lands, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Western and Eastern Cape
References:
ADAMSON, R.S. 1950.
Caryophyllaceae
. In R.S. Adamson & T.M. Salter,
Flora of the Cape Peninsula
. Juta, Cape Town
BITTRICH, V. 1993.
Caryophyllaceae
. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich,
The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons
2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
BURTT DAVY, J. 1926.
Caryophyllaceae
.
A manual of the flowering plants and ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland
1. Longmans, London
FRIEDRICH, H.C. 1979.
Caryophyllaceae
. In G. Hegi,
Illustrierte Flora von Mitteleuropa
, edn 2; 3,2
HENDERSON, M.D. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 37
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1754.
Genera plantarum
, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
PAX, F. 1889.
Caryophyllaceae
.
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien
3,1b
PODLECH, D. 1967.
Caryophyllaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
31
TURRILL,W.B. 1956.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Caryophyllaceae
WILD, H. 1961.
Caryophyllaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
1
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