Annual herbs, often laxly decumbent, hispid or setose
Leaves
alternate, usually lanceolate
Flowers
in terminal, helicoid, usually ebracteate cymes
Calyx
with 5 lanceolate lobes, some lobes sometimes connate; accrescent
Corolla
yellow or orange, with a cylindrical tube, naked in throat, lobes 5, swollen at base, short-oblong
Stamens
arising in upper part of corolla tube, included; anthers subsessile
Ovary
4-lobed, 4-locular, with a single ovule in each locule; gynobase pyramidal; ovules with a narrow, membranous, marginal rim; style gynobasic, almost as long as corolla tube, filiform; stigma capitate
Fruit
of 4 nutlets; nutlets ovoid-trigonous, usually verrucose, attached to receptacle for only part of length; gynobase pyramidal
x = 6, 17 (8, 13, 29) (aneuploids, polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
*Amsinckia
Lehm.
Lehmann: 7 (1831)
Candolle: 117 (1846)
Bentham: 851 (1876)
Gürke: 106 (1897)
Brand: 1, 15 (1921)
Chater: 110 (1972)
Al-Shehbaz: 98 (1991)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 15, mainly in Central America
Southern Africa
: Species 2: *
Amsinckia calycina
(Moris) Chater and *
A. menziesii
(Lehm.) A.Nelson & J.F.Macbr., introduced, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape
References:
AL-SHEHBAZ, I.A. 1991. The genera of
Boraginaceae
in the southeastern United States.
Journal of the Arnold Arboretum
, supplementary series 1
BENTHAM, G. 1876.
Boragineae
. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker,
Genera plantarum
2. Reeve, London
BRAND, A. 1921.
Borraginaceae
-
Borraginoideae
/
Cynoglosseae
.
Das Pflanzenreich
78
CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1846.
Borragineae
.
Prodromus
10. Victor Masson, Paris
CHATER, A.O. 1972.
Amsinckia
.
Flora europaea
3
GÜRKE, M. 1897.
Borraginaceae
.
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien
4, 3a
LEHMANN, J.G.C. 1831.
Delectus seminum quae in horto hamburgensium botanico
. Meissner, Hamburg
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