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

Rubiaceae - Ixoroideae - Gardenieae - Gardeniinae - Mitriostigma Hochst.

Description :

  • Shrubs or small trees
  • Leaves petiolate, elliptic, membranous; stipules green in dry state, ovate acuminate
  • Flowers in small, axillary, bracteolate cymes
  • Calyx 5-lobed, lobes subulate; tube campanulate
  • Corolla white; lobes short, rounded, dextrorsely contorted; tube elongate, narrowly campanulate or funnel-shaped
  • Stamens 5, arising in broad part of corolla tube, included or nearly so; anthers sessile, linear, dorsifixed
  • Disc cushion-like
  • Ovary 2-locular, or falsely 1-locular, with several subpendulous ovules in each locule; style filiform, glabrous; stigmatic club included or exserted, bifid at apex
  • Fruit a globose to ellipsoid berry, crowned by persistent calyx limb
  • Seeds somewhat compressed or not, fleshy; testa ornamented with fine narrow reticulations
  • x = 11

Nomenclature:

  • Mitriostigma Hochst.
    • Hochstetter: 235 (1842)
    • Hiern: 111 (1877)
    • Bridson & Verdcourt: 539 (1988)
  • Randia L. in part
    • Sonder: 7 (1865)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 5, tropical Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Mitriostigma axillare Hochst., KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BRIDSON, D.M. & VERDCOURT, B. 1988. Flora of tropical East Africa . Rubiaceae (part 2)
  • HIERN, W.P. 1877. Rubiaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 3
  • HOCHSTETTER, C.F.F. 1842. Nova genera plantarum Africae tum australis tum tropica borealis proponit et describit. Flora 25
  • SONDER, O.W. 1865. Rubiaceae . Flora capensis 3