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

Apocynaceae - Apocynoideae - Wrightieae - Holarrhena R.Br.

Description :

  • Shrubs or trees
  • Leaves opposite or subopposite, membranous, shortly petioled or subsessile, glandular towards base of petiole; stipules 0
  • Inflorescence a terminal or pseudo-axillary corymb, many-flowered
  • Flowers white, fragrant
  • Calyx small, eglandular within or with 2-5 glands alternating with sepals; sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate to subulate
  • Corolla salver-shaped; tube slender, subcylindric, slightly widened below middle, throat contracted; lobes overlapping to the right
  • Stamens 5, inserted near base of corolla tube; anthers 4-locular, included, oblong-lanceolate to linear, mucronate, rounded at base; filaments short, filiform
  • Disc 0
  • Ovary of 2 free carpels; style very short, filiform; stigma ellipsoid to fusiform, apex entire or 2-toothed, viscous
  • Mericarps 2, follicular, divaricate, slender, terete, often falcate
  • Seeds many, subterete, grooved on flat (ventral) side, with tuft of hairs at apex; cotyledons broad, complicate; radicle short; endosperm scanty
  • x = 11

Nomenclature:

  • Holarrhena R.Br.
    • Brown: 51 (1810)
    • Codd: 263 (1963)
    • De Kruif: 456 (1985)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 4, Asia and Africa, 2 in Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Holarrhena pubescens (Buch.-Ham.) Wall. ex G.Don, in Northern Province, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • BROWN, R. 1810. On the Asclepiadeae , a natural order of plants separated from the Apocineae of Jussieu. Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society 1
  • CODD, L.E. 1963. Apocynaceae . Flora of southern Africa 26
  • DE KRUIF, A.P.M. 1985. Apocynaceae : Baissea , Holarrhena and Rauvolfia . Flora zambesiaca 7,2