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

Erythroxylaceae - Erythroxylum P.Browne

Description :

  • Shrubs or trees
  • Leaves alternate, membranous or coriaceous, entire; stipules caducous or occasionally subpersistent, sometimes crowded towards tips of leafless twigs, leaving conspicuous scars
  • Flowers small, pedicellate, solitary or fascicled
  • Calyx with 5(6) sepals, usually slightly connate at base
  • Petals free, usually with an erect, transverse, 2-fid appendage on inner face, occasionally with a transverse pocket
  • Stamens 10(12) connate at base into a cup- or saucer-shaped structure; filaments equal or unequal in length, inserted in 1 or 2 rows
  • Ovary superior, 3(2)-locular, with 1(2) ovule in each locule, if more than 1 locule sometimes all but one aborted; styles 3(2), free or connate at base or for half their length; stigmas subclavate, subglobose, or discoid, flat and recurved in the simple-styled species
  • Fruit a small, 1-seeded drupe
  • x = 12

Nomenclature:

  • Erythroxylum P.Browne
    • Browne: 278 (1756)
    • Sonder: 233 (1860)
    • Robson: 103 (1963)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 250, cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical regions
  • Southern Africa : Species 4, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape; forests

References:

  • BROWNE, P. 1756. Erythroxylum . The civil and natural history of Jamaica in three parts , edn 1. Published by the author, London
  • ROBSON, N.K.B. 1963. Erythroxylaceae . Flora zambesiaca 2
  • SONDER, O.W. 1860. Erythroxyleae . Flora capensis 1