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

Euphorbiaceae - Acalyphoideae - Plukenetieae - Tragiella Pax & K.Hoffm.

Description :

  • Perennial herbs, usually twining, up to ± 3 m long; with stinging hairs; monoecious
  • Leaves alternate, long-petiolate, finely toothed; stipulate
  • Flowers in lateral, pedunculate racemes, with many bracteate male flowers above and 1 or 2 female flowers at base
  • Petals 0
  • Male flowers : calyx 3-partite, valvate above, at length with lobes folded inwards and resembling a disc; stamens 3(4), alternating with sepals; filaments united into a short column; anthers at first erect and later becoming reflexed, apiculate, with longitudinal, introrse dehiscence; ovary usually 0
  • Female flowers : calyx 6-partite; lobes pinnately 8-10-lacinulate on each side; ovary 3-lobed, with single ovule in each locule, hispid; styles 3, united almost to apex into a slender tube, with spreading stigmas
  • Fruit a 3-didymous capsule, dehiscing into 3-bivalved cocci; pericarp thin, crustaceous; endocarp woody; columella trifid, not persistent
  • Seeds globose, ecarunculate; cotyledons broad, flat

Nomenclature:

  • Tragiella Pax & K.Hoffm.
    • Pax & Hoffmann: 104 (1919)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 318 (1987)
    • Webster: 94 (1994)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 212 (1996)
  • Sphaerostylis Baill.
    • Baillon: 466, t. 21 (1858) in sense of some authors
    • Webster: 94 (1994), endemic to Madagascar but doubtfully separable

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 5, Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Tragiella natalensis (Sond.) Pax & K.Hoffm. in eastern parts

References:

  • BAILLON, H. 1858. Étude générale du groupe des Euphorbiacées . Victor Masson, Paris
  • PAX, F. & HOFFMANN, K. 1919. Euphorbiaceae - Acalypheae - Plukenetiinae . Das Pflanzenreich 147, 9 (Heft 68)
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1987. Euphorbiaceae . Flora of tropical East Africa . Euphorbiaceae Part 1
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1996. Euphorbiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 9, 4
  • WEBSTER, G.L. 1994. Synopsis of the genera and suprageneric taxa of Euphorbiaceae . Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 81