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

Icacinaceae - Pyrenacantha Wight

Description :

  • Lianas or scandent shrubs, dioecious or monoecious
  • Leaves alternate, petiolate, with entire to lobed margin
  • Flowers (3)4(5)-parted, valvate
  • Male flowers in slender spikes; stamens (3)4(5), shorter than perianth; filaments linear, about as long as anthers; anthers linear; ovary rudimentary
  • Female flowers in short, few-flowered spikes; stamens absent; ovary globose, 1-locular, with 2 ovules, villous; stigma sessile, of a number of radiating tubes
  • Fruit a drupe; endocarp crustaceous, verrucose-papillose inside, papillae projecting into interstices of deeply ruminate and pitted endosperm; embryo with thin foliaceous cotyledons in centre of copious fleshy endosperm
  • x = 10 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

  • Pyrenacantha Wight
    • Wight: 107 (1830)
    • Mendes: 347 (1963)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 25-30, Africa, Madagascar, Indochina and Malesia
  • Southern Africa : Species 3 in eastern and southern parts

References:

  • MENDES, E.J. 1963. Icacinaceae . Flora zambesiaca 2,1
  • WIGHT, R. 1830. Pyrenacantha . Hooker's Botanical Miscellany 2