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

Asteraceae - Vernonieae - Distephanus Cass.

Description :

  • Shrubs or scramblers, twigs herbaceous
  • Leaves alternate, ovate to lanceolate, acuminate, shortly petiolate, entire, glandular, lower surface sometimes thinly greyish tomentose
  • Capitula discoid, many, in dense, terminal, corymbose panicles
  • Involucre turbinate; bracts in several rows, imbricate, lanceolate, thinly pubescent
  • Receptacle shallowly honeycombed
  • Corolla yellow or orange, tubular, glandular
  • Anthers sagittate
  • Style branches filiform, somewhat acute, with relatively long hairs on back
  • Cypselas oblong-obovoid, generaly 10-ribbed, glabrous or pilose-sericeous
  • Pappus of many scabrid bristles; outer ones short, inner ones longer

Nomenclature:

  • Distephanus Cass.
    • Cassini: 151 (1817)
    • Robinson & Kahn: 498 (1986)
    • Bremer: 220 (1994)
  • Gongrothamnus Steetz
    • Steetz: 336 (1864)
    • Merxmüller: 424 (1954)
    • Merxmüller: 84 (1967)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 24, palaeotropical
  • Southern Africa : Species 4, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BREMER, K. 1994. Asteraceae , cladistics & classification . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
  • CASSINI, A.H.G. DE. 1817. Aperçu des genres ou sous-genres nouveaux formés par M. Henri Cassini dans la famille des Synanthérées. Bulletin des sciences de la Société Philomatique de Paris 4,1
  • MERXMÜLLER, H. 1954. Compositen-Studien 4: Die Compositen-Gattungen Südwestafrikas. Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung München 1
  • MERXMÜLLER, H. 1967. Asteraceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 139
  • ROBINSON, H. & KAHN, B. 1986. Trinervate leaves, yellow flowers, tailed anthers, and pollen variation in Distephanus Cassini ( Vernonieae : Asteraceae ). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 99
  • STEETZ, J. 1864. Compositae . In W. Peters. Naturwissenschaftliche Reise nach Mossambique (Botanik) Vol. 6. Georg Reimer, Berlin