Geophyte with aerial stems seasonal, climbing, erect or decumbent; root tuber napiform to cylindrical-ovoid; subterranean stems perennial
Leaves
petiolate, lamina linear to ovate to broadly ovate or elliptic to obovate, herbaceous, glabrous or variously hairy, base rounded to cuneate, apex obtuse, rounded or acute to acuminate
Inflorescences
racemose to capitulate, terminal and/or axillary, few- to many-flowered
Flowers
with gynostegium exserted from corolla
Sepals
glabrous to hairy
Corolla
green, brown, white, yellow, pink, violet to blue; tube cylindrical to campanulate, with nectariferous swellings on inner face below filament bases, longitudinally channelled with pockets at base; lobes ovate to obovate to triangular, apex obtuse to rounded
Corona
arising in corolla mouth, lobes free, entire, bifid, trifid or trisegmented and variously shaped, e.g. filiform, ovate, lobular and corniculate; colours as in corolla
Stamens
arising at mouth of corolla tube and adnate to bases of corona lobes; filaments filiform, sometimes dilated at base; anthers 4-locular, hastate, triangular or ovate, glabrous
Styles
long, fused from low down, often glandular
Style head
pentangularly ovoid, apex obtuse
Follicles
paired and widely diverging or solitary and erect, narrowly ovoid to linear-ovoid or obovoid with acuminate apices
Seeds
narrowly subovoid, with tuft or ring of hairs
Nomenclature:
Raphionacme
Harv.
Harvey: 22 (1842)
Brown: 268 (1904)
Brown: 532 (1907)
Huber: 5 (1967b)
Retief & Venter: 326 (1983)
Venter & Verhoeven: 149 (1986a)
Venter & Verhoeven: 332 (1986b)
Venter & Verhoeven: 177 (1987)
Venter & Verhoeven: 603 (1988a)
Venter & Verhoeven: 607 (1988b)
Verhoeven & Venter: 123 (1988)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 39, Africa, 1 in Arabian Peninsula, with the majority occurring south of the equator
Southern Africa
: Species 18, mostly found in arid to subhumid savanna, a few in desert, a few in swampy habitat: Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern and Eastern Cape
References:
BROWN, N.E. 1902.
Asclepiadeae
.
Flora of tropical Africa
4,1
HARVEY, W.H. 1842. Descriptions of several new genera of South African plants.
London Journal of Botany
1
HUBER, H. 1967b.
Periplocaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
113
RETIEF, E. & VENTER, H.J.T. 1983. A new species of
Raphionacme
(
Periplocaceae
) in the Orange Free State.
South African Journal of Botany
2,4
VENTER, H.J.T. & VERHOEVEN, R.L. 1986a. A new species of
Raphionacme
(
Periplocaceae
) from Natal, South Africa.
South African Journal of Botany
52
VENTER, H.J.T. & VERHOEVEN, R.L. 1986b. A new species of
Raphionacme
(
Periplocaceae
) from South West Africa/Namibia.
South African Journal of Botany
52
VENTER, H.J.T. & VERHOEVEN, R.L. 1987.
Raphionacme elsana
(
Periplocaceae
), a new species from Natal, South Africa.
South African Journal of Botany
53
VENTER, H.J.T. & VERHOEVEN, R.L. 1988a.
Raphionacme lobulata
(
Periplocaceae
), a new species from the eastern Cape Province.
South African Journal of Botany
54
VENTER, H.J.T. & VERHOEVEN, R.L. 1988b.
Raphionacme lucens
(
Periplocaceae
), a new species from South Africa and Mozambique.
South African Journal of Botany
54
VERHOEVEN, R.L. & VENTER, H.J.T. 1988. Pollen morphology of
Raphionacme
(
Periplocaceae
).
South African Journal of Botany
54
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