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

Fabaceae - Papilionoideae - Podalyrieae - Cyclopia Vent.

Description :

  • Erect branched shrubs
  • Leaves sessile, digitately or palmately 3-foliolate; leaflets linear to lanceolate or occasionally ovate, glabrous or pubescent, frequently with revolute margins
  • Flowers yellow, solitary and axillary; bracts 2(3)
  • Calyx with shallow tube, truncate and intruse at base and with usually triangular lobes slightly longer than tube
  • Petals : vexillum rounded, plaited at base, with short claw; wings oblong, with transverse fold; keel incurved, obtusely beaked, with small, triangular pocket
  • Stamens 10, free or slightly connate at base; filaments dilated
  • Ovary sessile or shortly stalked, several-ovuled, glabrous
  • Pod oblong, compressed, with coriaceous valves
  • Seeds small, with a strophiole
  • x = 9 (1 report, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Cyclopia Vent.
    • Ventenat: 8 (1808)
    • Harvey: 6 (1862)
    • Phillips & Hofmeyr: 105 (1922)
    • Kies: 161 (1951)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species ± 20, Western Cape, mainly southwestern districts, extending eastwards to near Uitenhage (Eastern Cape)

References:

  • HARVEY, W.H. 1862. Leguminosae . Flora capensis 2
  • KIES, P. 1951. Revision of the genus Cyclopia and notes on some other sources of bush tea. Bothalia 6
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. & HOFMEYR, J. 1922. The genus Cyclopia , Vent. Bothalia 1
  • VENTENAT, E.P. 1808. Decas generum novorum, Parisiis . Dufart, Paris