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

Asteraceae - Lactuceae - *Cichorium L.

Description :

  • Stiffly erect, perennial herbs with milky latex, with long, stout taproot
  • Stems annual, usually divaricately branched above, striate, densely hispid-setose to glabrescent
  • Leaves alternate, often rosulate, pinnatifid or coarsely toothed
  • Capitula ligulate, solitary or few together in sessile axillary clusters, spicately arranged along branches
  • Involucre cylindrical; bracts in 2 rows
  • Receptacle flat, epaleate
  • Florets bisexual; corolla strap-shaped, blue, rarely pink or white
  • Anthers sagittate at base, auricles mucronate-acuminate
  • Style with branches long, slender, obtuse and with sweeping hairs long
  • Cypselas obovoid-obconical, obscurely 5-angled, smooth, glabrous
  • Pappus of minute, rounded-obtuse scales
  • x = 9 (8, 10) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • *Cichorium L.
    • Linnaeus: 813 (1753)
    • Oliver & Hiern: 446 (1877)
    • Henderson & Anderson: 344 (1966)
    • Hilliard: 597 (1977)
    • Pope: 194 (1992)
    • Bremer: 176 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 8, Europe, Mediterranean region, Ethiopia
  • Southern Africa : * Cichorium intybus L., cultivated in some parts, now exists as a fairly widespread escape near cultivation, known from North-West, Gauteng, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BREMER, K. 1994. Asteraceae , cladistics & classification . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
  • HENDERSON, M. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 37
  • HILLIARD, O.M. 1977. Compositae in Natal . University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg
  • LINNAEUS, C. VON. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • OLIVER, D & HIERN, W.P. 1877. Compositae . Flora of tropical Africa 3
  • POPE, G.V. 1992. 97. Compositae . Flora zambesiaca 6,1