Stems
slightly woody, much branched at base, with cottony tomentum when young
Leaves
thick, fleshy, broad, with cottony tomentum on lower surfaces, nearly sessile, oblong-obovate to broadly obovate, apex apiculate, base narrowly cordate
Inflorescence
cymes, lateral, umbellate, mostly solitary at nodes
Calyx
: lobes ovate-lanceolate, glandular within
Corolla
broadly campanulate, pink above and white at base; lobes ovate-lanceolate, erect
Corona
of broad scales, laterally compressed with a dorsal spur, adnate to and equalling or longer than staminal column, apex bifid; basal spur acute, incurved
Anthers
with thin white membranous tips
Pollinia
pendulous in each anther theca; corpuscle dark brown, rod-shaped, 2-celled
Style
head 4 mm long, pentagonal
Follicles
inflated, subglobose to obliquely ovoid
Seeds
ovate, with a tuft of silky hairs
Nomenclature:
*Calotropis
R.Br.
Brown: 28 (1810)
Rahman & Wilcock: 301 (1991)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 3, distributed in tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia, and introduced into Central and South America
Southern Africa
: Species 1 naturalised:
*Calotropis procera
(Aiton) R.Br
References:
BROWN, R. 1810. On the
Asclepiadeae
, a natural order of plants separated from the
Apocineae
of Jussieu.
Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society
1
RAHMAN, M.A. & WILCOCK, C.C. 1991.A taxonomic revision of
Calotropis
(
Asclepiadaceae
).
Nordic Journal of Botany
11:301
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