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

Zannichelliaceae - Pseudalthenia Nakai

Description :

  • Submerged annuals with slender rhizomes
  • Stems upright, usually unbranched
  • Leaves alternate, leaf blade flattened, linear up to 100 mm long and 2 mm wide, with submarginal fibrous strands and submarginal veins connected to midvein by obliquely extended commissures; sheathing base auriculate
  • Male flowers single, naked; stamen with 8 microsporangia, connective terminating in a blunt appendage and with two vestigial outgrowths opposite each other on connective, hidden by anther lobes at maturity
  • Female flowers borne in a tubular sheath; carpel solitary; style lengthens rapidly during anthesis and displays a large, ephemeral, obliquely funnel-shaped stigma
  • Fruit an asymmetrical, warty, bean-shaped drupelet

Nomenclature:

  • Pseudalthenia Nakai
    • Nakai: 213 (1943)
    • Den Hartog: 95 (1980)
    • Cook: 222 (1990)
  • Vleisia Toml. & Posl.
    • Tomlinson & Posluszny: 273 (1976)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Pseudalthenia aschersoniana (Graebn.) Hartog, endemic to the W Western Cape; in brackish, coastal pools near Lamberts Bay and south to the Cape Peninsula

References:

  • COOK, C.D.K. 1990. Aquatic plant book . SPB Academic Publishing, The Hague
  • DEN HARTOG, C. 1980. Pseudalthenia antedates Vleisia, a nomenclatural note. Aquatic Botany 9
  • NAKAI, T. 1943. Ordines, familiae, tribi, genera, sectiones, species, varietates, formae et combinationes novae . Prof. Nakai-Takenoshin adhuc ut nova edita, Tokyo, 256 pp.
  • TOMLINSON, P.B. & POSLUSZNY, U. 1976. Generic limits in the Zannichelliaceae (sensu Dumortier). Taxon 25 (2/3)