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

Santalaceae - Rhoiacarpos A.DC.

Description :

  • Straggling shrub, with 4-angled branches
  • Leaves opposite, stout, leathery, sessile, ± rounded or subcordate at base, with prominent midrib, margins slightly inrolled
  • Inflorescences short, axillary or terminal racemes or panicles of usually 3-flowered cymules, bracteate
  • Flowers bisexual, yellow
  • Perianth : tube short, slender, obconic; lobes 5, ovate, acute, persistent, with a tuft of hairs attached to anthers
  • Stamens 5; anthers ovoid
  • Disc subconcave, with short, prominent, obtuse lobes
  • Ovary fleshy; ovules 5, pendulous from straight cylindrical placenta; style cylindric-conical; stigma 5-lobed, minute, alternating with perianth lobes
  • Fruit an ovoid drupe, crowned with persistent perianth lobes, red, edible
  • Seed bony

Nomenclature:

  • Rhoiacarpos A.DC.
    • Candolle: 634 (1857)
    • Hill: 207 (1915a)
    • Hill: 100 (1915b)
    • Pilger: 82 (1935)
    • Stauffer: 388 (1961)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Monotypic: Rhoiacarpos capensis (Harv.) A.DC., Western Cape from about Mossel Bay to Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • CANDOLLE, A.L.P.P. DE. 1857. Santalaceae . In A.P. de Candolle, Prodromus 14. Masson & Sons, Paris
  • HILL, A.W. 1915a. Santalaceae . Flora capensis 5,2
  • HILL, A.W. 1915b. Notes on South African Santalaceae . Kew Bulletin 1915
  • PILGER, R. 1935. Santalaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 2,16b
  • STAUFFER, H.U. 1961. Santalales-Studien V-VIII. Vierteljahrsschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich 106