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

Ranunculaceae - Thalictrum L.

Description :

  • Freely branched perennial herbs
  • Leaves alternate, with sheathing bases, ternately to pinnately compound, rarely simple
  • Flowers bisexual or male, generally small, pseudopaniculate
  • Sepals 3-10, petaloid
  • Petals 0
  • Stamens few to many, shorter than sepals
  • Carpels 1-many, each with 1 ovule; style present or 0, deciduous or persistent
  • Fruitlets 1-many clustered achenes, often delicately stalked, with a short or long beak
  • x = 7 (9, 10) (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

  • Thalictrum L.
    • Linnaeus: 545 (1753)
    • Linnaeus: 242 (1754)
    • Harvey: 3 (1860)
    • Milne-Redhead & Turrill: 11 (1952)
    • Exell & Milne-Redhead: 96 (1960)
    • Tamura: 581 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 85, north temperate and tropical America, tropical and southern Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 2, widespread in cool, sheltered localities in all the regions except Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland

References:

  • EXELL, A.W. & MILNE-REDHEAD, E. 1960. Ranunculaceae . Flora zambesiaca 1
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1860. Ranunculaceae . Flora capensis 1
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum , edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1754. Genera plantarum , edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • MILNE-REDHEAD, E. & TURRILL, W.B. 1952. Ranunculaceae . Flora of tropical East Africa . Ranunculaceae
  • TAMURA, M. 1993. Ranunculaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin