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

Sterculiaceae - Hermannia L.

Description :

  • Herbs, shrublets or undershrubs, frequently stellate-pubescent, sometimes glandular
  • Leaves entire, toothed, or pinnatifid; stipules often foliaceous, rarely 0
  • Flowers axillary and solitary or 2-nate or in terminal pseudoracemes or panicles
  • Calyx 5-lobed; tube globose to campanulate
  • Petals 5, obovate or oblong, sessile or clawed, spirally twisted; claw with infolded margin
  • Stamens 5, opposite petals, longer or shorter than ovary; filaments connate at base, sometimes almost free, linear with broad, membranous wings or somewhat cruciform; anthers mostly lanceolate, slightly or distinctly 2-lobed at apex
  • Ovary sessile or shortly stalked, 5-lobed, 5-locular, with few to many ovules in each locule, hairy; styles 5(1), capitate
  • Fruit a 5-locular, loculicidal capsule, sometimes horned
  • Seeds reniform, usually ribbed
  • x = 6 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

  • Hermannia L.
    • Linnaeus: 673 (1753)
    • Harvey: 180 (1860)
    • Wild: 537 (1961)
    • Friedrich-Holzhammer, Merxmüller & Roessler: 3 (1969)
    • De Winter: 263 (1974)
    • Verdoorn: 1 (1980)
  • Mahernia L.
    • Linnaeus: 227 (1767)
    • Harvey: 207 (1860)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 180, tropical Africa 11 species, plus ± 30 southern Africa species extending into that region, American species 3, and 1 or more in Australia, ± 162 in southern Africa
  • Southern Africa : The subgenera Hermannia with ± 94 and Mahernia with ± 68 species, in all countries and provinces

References:

  • DE WINTER, B. 1974. The identity of some species of Hermannia represented in the Thunberg, Bergius and Cavanilles Herbaria. Bothalia 11
  • FRIEDRICH-HOLZHAMMER, M., MERXMÜLLER, H. & ROESSLER, H. 1969. Sterculiaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 84
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1860. Sterculiaceae , Vent. & Byttneriaceae , R.Br. Flora capensis 1
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1767. Systema naturae edn 12,2. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • VERDOORN, I.C. 1980. Revision of Hermannia subgenus Hermannia in southern Africa. Bothalia 13
  • WILD, H. 1961. Sterculiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 1