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

Orchidaceae - Spiranthoideae - Cranichidae - Zeuxine Lindl.

Description :

  • Terrestrial herbs, slender, dwarf
  • Leaves linear or ovate, with broad sheathing base
  • Inflorescences dense or elongate spikes; flowers not resupinate, scarcely opening, white with yellow lip; bracts longer than flowers
  • Sepals subequal, median one erect, concave; laterals spreading, free
  • Petals narrow, often cohering with median sepal to form hood
  • Lip shortly adnate to base of gynostemium, concave or subsaccate at base, with or without pair of calli inside, ± contracted in middle, dilated at apex into entire or bilobed limb
  • Gynostemium : anther shortly apiculate; pollinia 2, with caudicle attached to broad, rounded viscidium; stigmas 2, lateral
  • Capsule small, erect, ovoid or subglobose
  • x = 10 (aneuploids, high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Zeuxine Lindl.
    • Lindley: 9 (1826)
    • Rolfe: 81 (1912)
    • Phillips: 239 (1951)
    • Stewart et al.: 212 (1982)
    • Linder & Kurzweil: 77 (1999)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 76, in Old World tropics and subtropics
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Zeuxine africana Rchb.f., Botswana, also near Durban (KwaZulu-Natal)

References:

  • LINDER, H.P. & KURZWEIL, H. 1999. Orchids of southern Africa . A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
  • LINDLEY, J. 1826. Orchidearum sceletos . Taylor (typ.), London
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • ROLFE, R.A. 1912. Order CXXXI. Orchideae . Flora capensis 5,3
  • STEWART, J., LINDER, H.P., SCHELPE, E.A. & HALL, A.V. 1982. Wild orchids of southern Africa . Macmillan, Johannesburg