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

Asteraceae - Inuleae - Pulicaria Gaertn.

Description :

  • Annual or perennial herbs, villous or subwoolly
  • Leaves alternate, sessile, often cordate-amplexicaul, entire, sinuate or serrate-dentate
  • Capitula radiate or disciform, solitary, often pedunculate, terminal
  • Involucre hemispherical; bracts in 4 or 5 rows, linear, glandular, hairy
  • Receptacle flat, honeycombed, epaleate
  • Marginal florets female; corolla yellow, strap-shaped, rarely filiform, 2- or 3-toothed
  • Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow; tube slightly widened upwards, glabrous, 5-lobed
  • Anther bases sagittate, with branched tails, minutely calcarate; with lanceolate, apical appendage; endothecial tissue radial
  • Style branches with acute sweeping hairs, not reaching furcation
  • Cypselas semiterete, ribbed, glandular and hairy
  • Pappus double; outer row of short scales often connate into toothed crown; inner row of few, smooth, caducous bristles
  • x = 9 (6, 7, 10) (polyploidy, B-chromosomes - 1 report)

Nomenclature:

  • Pulicaria Gaertn.
    • Gaertner: 461, t. 173 (1791)
    • Harvey: 121 (1865)
    • Hilliard: 281 (1977)
    • Anderberg: 109 (1991)
    • Anderberg: 290 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 77, Europe, Africa and Asia
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Pulicaria scabra (Thunb.) Druce, widespread but absent from Botswana and Northern Cape

References:

  • ANDERBERG, A.A. 1991. Taxonomy and phylogeny of the tribe Inuleae ( Asteraceae ). Plant Systematics and Evolution 176
  • ANDERBERG, A.A. 1994. Tribes Inuleae , Plucheeae , Gnaphalieae . In K. Bremer, Asteraceae , cladistics and classification . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
  • GAERTNER, J. 1791. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum 2. Academia Carolina, Stuttgart
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1865. Compositae . Flora capensis 3
  • HILLIARD, O.M. 1977. Compositae in Natal . University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg