Annual or perennial herbs, rarely subshrubs, pubescent, rarely glabrous
Branches
usually prostrate, sometimes decumbent or erect
Leaves
opposite, members of a pair usually unequal in size, paripinnate; leaflets in 5-10 pairs, one of each pair usually longer than the other, sessile, oblong to ovate, somewhat oblique, entire; stipules 2, lanceolate to ovate, membranous
Flowers
axillary, solitary, subtended by the smaller leaf
Calyx
of 5 deciduous or semipersistent sepals; sepals ovate to narrowly lanceolate, hairy outside
Petals
5, narrowly lanceolate to broadly ovate, usually yellow
Stamens
5 or 10, in 1 or 2 whorls; intrastaminal glands 10, free or connate to form a shallow cup at base of ovary; anthers cordate or oblong-cordate
Ovary
sessile, 5-lobed, 5-locular with 3-5 ovules in each locule, covered with bristle-like hairs; style short or 0; stigma conspicuous, 5-angled, pyramidal or hemispheric, formed by ingrowth of the 5 stigmatic lobes
Fruit
a capsule, 5-angled, splitting at length into 5 indehiscent mericarps; mericarps dorsally tuberculate, winged or spinous, 1-5-seeded
Seeds
without endosperm
x = 6 (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Tribulus
L.
Linnaeus: 386 (1753)
Linnaeus: 183 (1754)
Candolle: 703 (1824)
Sonder: 352 (1860)
Hooker: 264 (1862)
Oliver: 283 (1868)
Engler: 174 (1931)
Schweickerdt: 159 (1937)
Phillips: 435 (1951)
Launert: 126 (1963)
Hadidi: 2 (1985)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 25, fairly cosmopolitan in warm, somewhat arid areas
Southern Africa
: Species 4, widespread
References:
CANDOLLE, A.L.P.P. DE. 1824.
Zygophylleae
.
Prodromus
1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
HADIDI, M.N. EL. 1985.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Zygophyllaceae
HOOKER, J.D. 1862.
Zygophylleae
. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker,
Genera plantarum
1. Pamplin, London
LAUNERT, E. 1963.
Zygophyllaceae
.
Flora zambesica
2
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Decandria tetragynia
.
Species plantarum
. Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1754.
Decandria monogynia
.
Genera plantarum
, edn 5. Salvius, Stockholm
OLIVER, D. 1868.
Zygophylleae
.
Flora of tropical Africa
1
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 25
SCHWEICKERDT, H.G. 1937. An account of the South African species of
Tribulus
Tourn. ex Linn.
Bothalia
3
SONDER, W. 1860.
Zygophylleae
.
Flora capensis
1
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