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

Ebenaceae - Euclea Murray

Description :

  • Trees, shrubs or undershrubs, dioecious
  • Leaves alternate, subopposite or subverticillate, simple, coriaceous
  • Flowers in axillary racemes, pseudoracemes, pseudocymes, panicles, or solitary
  • Calyx 4- or 5-lobed, persistent
  • Corolla urceolate to subglobose and shallowly 5-8-lobed on mouth or campanulate and deeply 4- or 5-lobed
  • Stamens 10-30, free or filaments joined at base in pairs or groups; filaments shorter than anthers; anthers dehiscing by lateral, longitudinal slits; staminodes present or absent in female flowers
  • Ovary on a fimbriate, somewhat fleshy disc, 2-6-locular, with a single, pendulous ovule in each locule, or locules incompletely septate and then with 2 ovules; styles 1 or 2(3)
  • Fruit a berry, 1(2 or 3)-seeded
  • Seeds usually globose or, if 2 or 3 together, then hemispherical or 3-angled, marked into 3 areas by a curved groove as in a tennis ball; endosperm usually flinty
  • x = 15.

Nomenclature:

  • Euclea Murray
    • Murray: 747 (1774)
    • Hiern: 460 (1906)
    • De Winter: 80 (1963)
    • White: 289 (1983)
    • Retief: 228 (1986)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 20, Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 16, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape

References:

  • DE WINTER, B. 1963. Ebenaceae . Flora of southern Africa 26
  • HIERN, W.P. 1906. Ebenaceae . Flora capensis 4,1
  • MURRAY, J.A. 1774. Euclea . Systema vegetabilium , edn 13. Dieterich, Göttingen
  • RETIEF, E. 1986. Ebenaceae : a new species of Euclea from the Transvaal. Bothalia 16
  • WHITE, F. 1983. Ebenaceae . Flora zambesiaca 7,1