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

Icacinaceae - Apodytes E.Mey. ex Arn.

Description :

  • Shrubs or trees
  • Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, often shiny
  • Flowers small, in terminal or axillary cymes, corymbs, or panicles
  • Calyx saucer-shaped, small, minutely 5-toothed
  • Petals 5, free or united into a basal tube; lobes valvate
  • Stamens 5, slightly cohering at base with petals or corolla tube
  • Ovary 1-locular, with 2 pendulous ovules; style terete, excentric or oblique, often ± incurved; stigma small
  • Fruit a drupe, obliquely ellipsoid or orbicular, compressed with large, lateral, fleshy appendage, often with remains of style on one side of base; embryo apically in seed; endosperm fleshy
  • x = 12

Nomenclature:

  • Apodytes E.Mey. ex Arn.
    • Arnott:155 (1840)
    • Sonder: 235 (1860) under Olacineae
    • Mendes: 343 (1963)
    • Van Wyk & Potgieter: 231 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 5-17 (depending on species concept), Africa, Madagascar, and Australasia
  • Southern Africa : Species 3 in eastern and southern parts

References:

  • ARNOTT, G.A.W. 1840. XIV. Notes on some South African plants. Hooker's Journal of Botany 3
  • MENDES, E.J. 1963. Icacinaceae . Flora zambesiaca 2,1
  • SONDER, O.W. 1860. Olacineae . Flora capensis 1
  • VAN WYK, A.E. & POTGIETER, M.J. 1994. Two new species of Apodytes ( Icacinaceae ) from southern Africa. Journal of South African Botany 60