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

Caryophyllaceae - Alsinoideae - Alsineae - Cerastium L.

Description :

  • Annual or perennial herbs, with simple or dichotomously branched stems, usually glandular-hairy
  • Leaves small, opposite, sessile or subsessile, entire; stipules 0
  • Inflorescences terminal, dichotomous, often umbelliform, occasionally flowers solitary; bracts herbaceous or with membranous margins
  • Flowers bisexual, subperigynous
  • Sepals (4)5, free, with scarious-membranous margins
  • Petals (4)5, white, emarginate or bifid, rarely quite entire or deeply cut, sometimes 0
  • Disc of 5 honeyed glands
  • Stamens (8)10 or 5 or fewer
  • Ovary 1-locular; ovules many on free-central placenta; styles (3-)5(6)
  • Fruit a cylindrical capsule, often incurved, membranous, dehiscing by twice as many teeth as styles present
  • Seeds many, reniform or subglobose, often tubercled; embryo almost annular
  • x = 18 (12, 13, 17, 19) (high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Cerastium L.
    • Linnaeus: 437 (1753)
    • Linnaeus: 199 (1754)
    • Jussieu: 301 (1789)
    • Candolle: 414 (1824)
    • Sonder: 130 (1860)
    • Pax: 80 (1889)
    • Burtt Davy: 150 (1926)
    • Möschl: 15 (1951)
    • Wild: 346 (1961)
    • Jalas, Sell & Whitehead: 136 (1964)
    • Henderson & Anderson: 128 (1966)
    • Wild, Hooper & Diniz: 9 (1973)
    • Friedrich: 902 (1979)
    • Bittrich: 226 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 100, with almost cosmopolitan distribution, but mainly in the north temperate regions of the Old World; many weeds; some species are cultivated as ornamentals
  • Southern Africa : Species 5, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Lesotho, Western and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BITTRICH, V. 1993. Caryophyllaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
  • BURTT DAVY, J. 1926. Caryophyllaceae . A manual of the flowering plants and ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland 1. Longmans, London
  • CANDOLLE, A.-P. DE. 1824. Caryophylleae . Prodromus 1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
  • FRIEDRICH, H.C. 1979. Caryophyllaceae . In G. Hegi, Illustrierte Flora von Mitteleuropa , edn 2; 3,2
  • HENDERSON, M.D. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 37
  • JALAS, J., SELL, P.D. & WHITEHEAD, F.H. 1964. Caryophyllaceae . Subfamily Alsinoideae . Cerastium . Flora europaea 1
  • JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Caryophylleae , les caryophyllées. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita . Herissant & Barrois, Paris
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1754. Genera plantarum , edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • MÖSCHL, W. 1951. Die Cerastium -Arten Afrikas südlich der Sahara. Memórias da Sociedade Broteriana 7
  • PAX, F. 1889. Caryophyllaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,1b
  • SONDER, O.W. 1860. Caryophylleae . Flora capensis 1
  • WILD, H. 1961. Caryophyllaceae . Flora zambesiaca 1
  • WILD, H., HOOPER, S.S. & DINIZ, M.A. 1973. Caryophyllaceae . Flora de Moçambique 19

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