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

Primulaceae - Lysimachia L.

Description :

  • Herbs, mostly perennial
  • Leaves alternate, opposite or whorled
  • Flowers usually in spicate racemes, sometimes in panicles, dirty white, dark red or purple
  • Calyx divided almost to base; segments 5 or 6, oblong
  • Corolla usually longer than calyx; tube subcylindric or campanulate; lobes longer than tube
  • Stamens arising from corolla tube, included or exserted; filaments glabrous; staminodes rarely present
  • Ovary superior, globose or ovoid; style cylindric, ± as long as corolla; stigma minutely 3-lobed
  • Capsule surrounded by persistent calyx and with persistent style, opening by 5 valves at apex, rarely irregularly dehiscent
  • Seed brown, 3-angled
  • x = 12 (8, 9, 10, 14, 17) (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

  • Lysimachia L.
    • Linnaeus: 146 (1753)
    • Pax & Knuth: 256 (1905)
    • Harvey & Wright: 427 (1906)
    • Dyer: 11 (1963)
    • Guillaumet: 1 (1981)
    • Peltier: 4 (1981)
    • Kupicha: 187 (1983)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 150-200, chiefly in Europe, Asia and North America
  • Southern Africa : Species 2, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • DYER, R.A. 1963. Primulaceae . Flora of southern Africa 26
  • GUILLAUMET, J.L. 1981. Primulacées. Flore des Mascareignes 114
  • HARVEY, W.H. & WRIGHT, C.H. 1906. Primulaceae . Flora capensis 4,1
  • KUPICHA, F.K. 1983. Primulaceae . Flora zambesiaca 7
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • PAX, F. & KNUTH, R. 1905. Primulaceae . Das Pflanzenreich 4, 237 (Heft 22)
  • PELTIER, M. 1981. Primulacées. Flore de Madagascar et des Comores 162