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

Asteraceae - Arctoteae - Cuspidia Gaertn.

Description :

  • Annual herbs, acaulescent or branched
  • Leaves alternate, stem-clasping, spinose-toothed, glabrous
  • Capitula radiate, several-flowered, solitary, terminal, peduncled or subsessile
  • Involucre campanulate; bracts connate; outer bracts ovate to elliptic, becoming lignified, usually with 3 large, marginal spines, membranous, veined; inner bracts spinous, membranous, veined
  • Receptacle flat, honeycombed, with rim of pits produced into membranous cups enclosing ovary
  • Ray florets neuter; corolla yellow; tube 0, lamina oblong, 4-toothed
  • Disc florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow; tube narrowly funnel-shaped, somewhat angled, glandular-hairy, with 5 linear lobes
  • Anthers sagittate at base, with lanceolate, apical appendage
  • Style terete, with linear, obtuse branches
  • Cypselas obovoid-obconical, sericeous
  • Pappus of linear, ciliate-barbellate, subulate scales
  • Seeds germinating within capitulum

Nomenclature:

  • Cuspidia Gaertn.
    • Gaertner: 454 (1791)
    • Harvey: 510 (1865) under Didelta
    • Burtt: 69 (1948)
    • Phillips: 847 (1951)
    • Roessler: 315 (1959)
    • Bremer: 261 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Monotypic: Cuspidia cernua (L.f.) B.L.Burtt, endemic to the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BREMER, K. 1994. Asteraceae , cladistics & classification . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
  • BURTT, B.L. 1948. Didelta and Cuspidia . Kew Bulletin 1948
  • GAERTNER, J. 1791. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum 2. Academia Carolina, Stuttgart
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1865. Compositae . Flora capensis 3
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants, edn 2. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • ROESSLER, H. 1959. Revision der Arctotideae - Gorteriinae ( Compositae ). Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssamlung München 3