Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs, erect, dichotomously branched, glabrous or pubescent with multicellular, often gland-tipped hairs
Leaves
opposite, sessile to subsessile, simple, ovate to linear, entire, midrib apparent but lateral nerves obscure; stipules 0
Inflorescences
axillary, erect, sessile to pedunculate, bearing paired, sessile to pedicellate flowers
Flowers
bisexual, regular
Calyx
: tube campanulate to subglobose, often distinctly 5-veined, adnate to ovary; lobes 5, valvate, persistent
Petals
5, free, valvate, alternating with calyx lobes, shorter than or just exceeding calyx lobes, lanceolate to round, entire to crenate or irregularly dentate, white or yellow
Stamens
5, alternating with petals, arising from margin of epigynous disc; filaments free, subulate, with or without a widened membranous area or scale-like appendage at base; anthers 2-thecous, dehiscing longitudinally, introrse, dorsifixed
Ovary
inferior, 1-locular; ovules many, tenuinucellate, attached to 2 thick pendulous, flattened, rounded placentas hanging from apex of locule; styles 2 or 3, spreading, shorter than or exceeding calyx lobes, usually fused near base; stigmas capitulate
Fruit
a capsule, subglobose or obovoid, dehiscing by 2 or 3 valves between style bases, all floral parts (except anthers) persistent
Seeds
many, minute, oblong
Nomenclature:
Vahlia
Thunb.
Thunberg: 36 (1782) name conserved
Jussieu: 318 (1789)
Candolle: 53 (1830)
Harvey: 306 (1862)
Oliver: 383 (1871)
Engler: 65 (1890)
Engler: 166 (1928)
Friedrich-Holzhammer: 1 (1968)
Bridson: 163 (1975a)
Bridson: 1 (1975b)
Bridson: 48 (1978)
Bridson: 28 (1989)
Thulin: 340 (1993)
Bistella
Adans.
Adanson: 226 (1763)
Delile: 97, t. 93 (1826)
Bullock: 84 (1966)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 5
Southern Africa
: 2 species with 6 intraspecific taxa, widespread in drier western parts and very variable, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Free State, NW KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern and Western Cape
References:
ADANSON, M. 1763. Famille des Jasmins, Jasmina. Section A5 Etamines.
Familles des plantes
2. Vincent, Paris
BRIDSON, D.M. 1975a. A revision of the family
Vahliaceae
.
Kew Bulletin
30
BRIDSON, D.M. 1975b.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Vahliaceae
JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789.
Onagrae
, les Onagres.
Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita
. Herissant & Barrois, Paris
OLIVER, D. 1871.
Saxifragaceae
.
Flora of tropical Africa
2
THULIN, M. 1993.
Vahliaceae
.
Flora of Somalia
1
THUNBERG, C.P. 1782.
Vahlia
.
Nova genera plantarum
2. Edman, Uppsala
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