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

Rosaceae - Maloideae - *Cotoneaster Medik.

Description :

  • Deciduous or evergreen shrubs or small trees, erect or decumbent, unarmed, pubescent
  • Leaves alternate, entire, simple, coriaceous, often downy; stipules subulate, caducous
  • Inflorescences lateral and terminal cymes, a small corymb or occasionally flowers solitary
  • Flowers bisexual, small, shorter than 10 mm
  • Calyx : tube turbinate or campanulate; lobes 5, superior, short, persistent in fruit
  • Petals 5, suborbicular, erect or spreading, white, pink or red
  • Stamens 10-20, inserted at mouth of calyx tube
  • Ovary semi-inferior; carpels 2-5, adnate wholly, or by their backs only, to calyx tube; ovules 2, erect in each carpel; styles 2-5, free; stigma truncate
  • Fruit small, globose, somewhat succulent, red or black berries, crowned with persistent calyx tube, with mealy flesh, and with 2-5, 1-seeded, hard-walled pyrenes
  • x = 17 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • *Cotoneaster Medik.
    • Medikus: 85 (1793)
    • Lindley: 101 (1820)
    • Kunth: 214 (1823)
    • Candolle: 632 (1825)
    • Endlicher: 1238 (1840)
    • Hooker: 627 (1865)
    • Focke: 21 (1894)
    • Browicz: 72 (1968)
    • Bailey & Bailey: 322 (1977)
    • Meikle: 637 (1977)
    • Klotz: 7 (1982)
    • Hedberg: 41 (1989)
    • Fryer & Hylmö: 426 (1995)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 70, mainly in the north temperate regions of Europe and Asia, particularly abundant in W China and the Himalaya region; several species have been widely grown as ornamentals for their decorative berries
  • Southern Africa : Species 2, naturalised: * Cotoneaster franchetii Boiss. and * C. pannosus Franch., Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BAILEY, L.H. & BAILEY, E.Z. 1977. Cotoneaster , Crataegus , Cydonia , Duchesnea , Fragaria , Potentilla , Prunus , Pyracantha , Pyrus , Rosa & Sanguisorba (= Poterium ). Hortus Third, a concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States and Canada . Macmillan, New York
  • BROWICZ, K. 1968. Rosaceae ( Cotoneaster ). Flora europaea 2
  • CANDOLLE, A.-P. DE. 1825. Rosaceae . Prodromus 2. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
  • ENDLICHER, S.L. 1840. Pomaceae - Rosaceae . Order AMYGDALEAE. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita 2. Beck, Vienna
  • FOCKE, W.O. 1894. Rosaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,3
  • FRYER, J. & HYLMÖ. 1995. Cotoneaster . The European garden flora 4. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  • HEDBERG, O. 1989. Rosaceae . Flora of Ethiopia 3
  • HOOKER, J.D. 1865. Rosaceae . In G. Bentham & J. D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
  • KLOTZ, G. 1982. Synopsis der Gattung Cotoneaster Medik. Beiträge zur Phytotaxonomie 10
  • KUNTH, C.S. 1823. Rosaceae . In A. de Humboldt, A. Bonpland & C.S. Kunth, Nova genera et species plantarum 6. Libraria Graeco-Latino-Germanica, Paris
  • LINDLEY, J. 1820. Observations on the natural group of plants called Pomaceae . The Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 13
  • MEDIKUS, F.K. 1793. Geschichte der Botanik unserer Zeiten . Schwan & Götz, Mannheim
  • MEIKLE, R.D. 1977. Rosaceae . Flora of Cyprus 1

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