Annual herbs, glabrous; stems prostrate, decumbent or erect, with slightly swollen nodes
Leaves
: basal leaves crowded into a rosette, other leaves in false whorls on stem, linear to spathulate, sometimes slightly fleshy; stipules small and scarious or 0
Inflorescences
axillary or terminal, umbellate or dichotomous cymes; flowers inconspicuous; pedicels short, strongly reflexed after flowering
Sepals
5, free, imbricate, green without, whitish within, margins hyaline
Petals
0
Stamens
(3-) 5(-10), alternating with carpels or sepals, united basally by a very shallow ring of filament tissue; anthers versatile
Ovary
3-5(-8)-locular; ovules many per locule; styles 3(-5), free, very short, erect; stigma linear, papillate
Fruit
a membranous, ellipsoidal, loculicidal capsule, longer than and included within persistent sepals
Seeds
many, ± compressed, reniform to roundish, reddish to blackish brown; embryo curved; cotyledons oblong, fleshy
x = 9 (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Mollugo
L.
Linnaeus: 89 (1753)
Linnaeus: 39 (1754)
Fenzl: 375 (1836)
Sonder: 137 (1860)
Hutchinson & Dalziel: 114 (1927)
Phillips: 290 (1951)
Keay: 134 (1954)
Adamson: 13 (1958)
Jeffrey: 16 (1961)
Pitot: 751 (1965)
Friedrich: 15 (1966)
Bogle: 437 (1970)
Gonçalves: 302 (1970)
Gonçalves: 541 (1978)
Endress & Bittrich: 424 (1993)
Gilbert: 110 (1993)
Eliasson: 9 (1996)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 30, tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres, with a few species widespread as introduced weeds in temperate regions
Southern Africa
: Species 6, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Swaziland, Free State, N KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Northern Cape
References:
ADAMSON, R.S. 1958. The South African species of
Aizoaceae
. IV.
Mollugo
,
Pharnaceum
,
Coelanthum
and
Hypertelis
.
Journal of South African Botany
24
BOGLE, A.L. 1970. The genera of
Molluginaceae
and
Aizoaceae
in the southeastern United States.
Journal of the Arnold Arboretum
51
ELIASSON, U.H. 1996.
Molluginaceae
.
Flora of Ecuador
55
ENDRESS, M.E. & BITTRICH, V. 1993.
Molluginaceae
. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich,
The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons
2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
FENZL, E. 1836. Monographie der Mollugineen und Steudelieen.
Annalen des Wiener Museums der Naturgeschichte
1
FRIEDRICH, H.C. 1966.
Molluginaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
26
GILBERT, M.G. 1993.
Molluginaceae
.
Flora of Somalia
1
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