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

Apocynaceae - Asclepiadoideae - Asclepiadeae - Gomphocarpus R.Br.

Description :

  • Perennial herbs or shrublets 0.5-2(-5) m tall, with fibrous rootstock
  • Stems bifarious, hollow
  • Leaves paired (ternate in G. rivularis ); colleters 0 (except in G. rivularis )
  • Inflorescence umbelliform (shortly cymose in G. rivularis )
  • Corolla white to pale greenish yellow
  • Corona lobes saccate; with or without appendages
  • Anthers 2-locular, with terminal, membranous, incumbent or erect appendage
  • Pollinia pendulous; caudicles shorter than pollinia
  • Follicles beaked, echinate and inflated; occasionally smooth and not inflated

Nomenclature:

  • Gomphocarpus R.Br.
    • Brown: 26 (1810)
    • Bullock: 405 (1952)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 25-32, Africa and Asia
  • Southern Africa : Species 10, widespread

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
  • BULLOCK, A.A. 1952. Notes on African Asclepiadaceae : I. Kew Bulletin 8