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

Portulacaceae - Portulacaria Jacq.

Description :

  • Succulent, glabrous shrubs with stout, sometimes waxy branches
  • Leaves opposite, succulent
  • Flowers fascicled on terminal branchlets
  • Sepals 2, membranous, becoming somewhat rigid, persistent
  • Petals connate into a short tube with 4 or 5 obovate lobes
  • Stamens 4-7, adnate to petals; anthers often aborted
  • Ovary superior, 3-angled or narrowly 3-winged, 1-locular; ovule solitary, basal; style short; stigmas 3, slightly spreading
  • Fruit a thin-walled, 3-winged nut, indehiscent
  • x = 11 (1 report, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Portulacaria Jacq.
    • Jacquin: 160, t. 122 (1787)
    • Candolle: 360 (1828)
    • Fenzl: 950 (1839a)
    • Fenzl: 294 (1839b)
    • Bentham: 157 (1862)
    • Sonder: 385 (1862)
    • Pax: 59 (1889)
    • Burtt Davy: 164 (1926)
    • Pax & Hoffmann: 260 (1934)
    • McNeill: 726 (1974)
    • Nyananyo: 235 (1989)
    • Nyananyo: 238 (1990)
    • Carolin: 550 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 3, confined to Namibia, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, N KwaZulu-Natal, Northern and Eastern Cape, in xerophytic scrub

References:

  • BENTHAM, G. 1862. Portulaceae . In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
  • BURTT DAVY, J. 1926. Portulacaceae . A manual of the flowering plants and ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland 1. Longmans, Green & Co., London
  • CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1828. Portulaceae . Prodromus 3. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
  • CAROLIN, R.C. 1993. Portulacaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
  • FENZL, E. 1839a. Ordo Portulacaceae . In S.L. Endlicher, Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita 2. Beck, Vienna
  • FENZL, E. 1839b. Supplement. Verbesserungen und Zusätze zur ersten Abtheilung der Monographie. Annalen des Wiener Museums der Naturgeschichte 2
  • JACQUIN, N.J. 1787. Portulacaria . Collectanea ad botanicam, chemiam, et historiam naturalem spectantia 1. Wappler, Vienna
  • MCNEILL, J. 1974. Synopsis of a revised classification of the Portulacaceae . Taxon 23
  • NYANANYO, B.L. 1989. Taxonomy of the endemic African genera of the Portulacaceae (CENTROSPERMAE). Feddes Repertorium 100
  • NYANANYO, B.L. 1990. Tribal and generic relationship in the Portulacaceae (CENTROSPERMAE). Feddes Repertorium 101
  • PAX, F. 1889. Portulacaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,1b
  • PAX, F. & HOFFMANN, K. 1934. Portulacaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien , edn 2,16c
  • SONDER, O.W. 1862. Portulacaceae . Flora capensis 2