Rubiaceae
-
Rubioideae
-
Spermacoceae
-
Spermacoce
L.
Description
:
Annual or perennial herbs, hairy or glabrous; stems prostrate to erect, 4-angled
Leaves
opposite or falsely whorled, sessile or shortly petiolate; stipules united to form a short sheath, with 1-many, ± filiform fimbriae
Flowers
axillary, in dense, sessile, globose masses
Calyx
4-lobed, usually persistent; lobes triangular, oblong or lanceolate; tube obovoid, turbinate or obconic
Corolla
4-lobed, white; lobes spreading, acute or obtuse, hairy or glabrous; tube slender, funnel-shaped
Stamens
4; filaments arising in tube or at throat; anthers linear to oblong, included or exserted
Ovary
2-locular; ovule 1 per locule, attached to middle of septum; style filiform, exserted, with bilobed stigma
Fruit
usually a 2-valved capsule dehiscing from apex downwards with septum disappearing
x = 7 (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Spermacoce
L.
Linnaeus: 102 (1753)
Linnaeus: 44 (1754)
Phillips: 738 (1951) including
Borreria
G.Mey.
Verdcourt: 339 (1976)
Verdcourt: 165 (1989)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 100, warm regions of America
Southern Africa
: Species 5, not recorded in Free State, Lesotho and Western Cape
References:
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm.
LINNAEUS, C. 1754.
Genera plantarum
, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 25
VERDCOURT, B. 1976.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Rubiaceae
(part 1)
VERDCOURT, B. 1989.
Rubiaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
5,1
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