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

Fabaceae - Papilionoideae - Desmodieae - Desmodiinae - Pseudarthria Wight & Arn.

Description :

  • Perennial, erect to suberect, woody herbs or subshrubs, arising from a thick rhizomatous, woody rootstock; tomentose-villous with white or yellow hairs
  • Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; stipules lanceolate-attenuate
  • Flowers pink, racemose, sometimes panicled, bracteate
  • Calyx with campanulate tube; 2 upper lobes connate
  • Petals : vexillum orbicular, sometimes cuneate; wings free, eared and shortly clawed; keel obtuse, eared, clawed
  • Stamens diadelphous; anthers uniform
  • Ovary subsessile or stalked, many-ovuled, usually hairy; style subulate, inflexed, with terminal stigma
  • Pod linear-oblong or slightly falcate, compressed, with sutures straight or slightly sinuate, imperfectly articulated
  • Seeds compressed, reniform or oblong-ovoid, smooth, brown to khaki
  • x = 11, 13, 17 (1 report each)

Nomenclature:

  • Pseudarthria Wight & Arn.
    • Wight & Arnott: 209 (1834)
    • Harvey: 229 (1862)
    • Hutchinson: 399 (1964)
    • Schrire: 17 (1988)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 6, from southern Africa into Asia, Madagascar, Mauritius and Réunion
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Pseudarthria hookeri Wight & Arn. var. hookeri , Northern Province, North-West, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • HARVEY, W.H. 1862. Leguminosae . Flora capensis 2
  • HUTCHINSON, J. 1964. Order LEGUMINALES. The genera of flowering plants 1. Oxford University Press, Oxford
  • SCHRIRE, B.D. 1988. A synopsis of the tribe Desmodieae ( Fabaceae ) in southern Africa. Bothalia 18
  • WIGHT, R. & ARNOTT, G.A.W. 1834. Prodromus florae peninsula Indiae orientalis 1. Parbury, Allen & Co., London