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

Nyctaginaceae - Boerhavia L.

Description :

  • Annual or perennial, erect or diffuse herbs, rarely woody at base, usually many-stemmed, sometimes viscid, raphides often present in all parts; stems slender, glabrous or pubescent, often with glandular rings about internodes
  • Leaves opposite, commonly in pairs of unequal size at each node, often fleshy, entire or repand, petiolate or sessile
  • Inflorescences terminal and axillary, paniculate, umbellate or cymose, sometimes diffuse, pedunculate; bracteoles 1 or 2, minute, caducous
  • Flowers bisexual, small, solitary or glomerate, subsessile to pedicellate, fugacious
  • Perianth : tube variable in length, lower portion constricted above ovary, cylindrical to obconical, upper portion petaloid, coloured, campanulate, caducous after anthesis, with lower part persistent and becoming hardened in fruit, sometimes glandular; lobes 5
  • Stamens 1-4(-6), exserted or included, unequal; filaments filiform, shortly connate below; anthers usually subglobular
  • Ovary ellipsoid, oblique, shortly stipitate; style filiform, exserted or included; stigma capitate or peltate
  • Fruit enclosed in lower portion of perianth (anthocarp); anthocarp fusiform, valvate or turbinate, conspicuously 3-5-sulcate, symmetrical, glabrous or glandular pubescent, often viscid; ribs rounded, acute or winged, usually mucous when wet
  • Seed with scanty endosperm; embryo hooked
  • x = 13 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Boerhavia L.
    • Linnaeus: 3 (1753) 'Boerhaavia'
    • Linnaeus: 9 (1754)
    • Jussieu: 91 (1789)
    • Brown: 422 (1810)
    • Choisy: 449 (1849)
    • Hooker: 5 (1880)
    • Heimerl: 26 (1889)
    • Baker & Wright: 2 (1909)
    • Cooke: 393 (1910)
    • Standley: 204 (1918)
    • Burtt Davy: 209 (1926)
    • Heimerl: 117 (1934)
    • Stemmerik: 452 (1964) in part
    • Codd: 113 (1966)
    • Schreiber: 1 (1969)
    • Fosberg: 1 (1978)
    • Stirton: 79 (1982)
    • Stannard: 20 (1988)
    • Bittrich & Kühn: 481 (1993)
    • Thulin: 169 (1993)
    • Whitehouse: 2 (1996)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 20, in almost all tropical and subtropical areas of the world, mostly in North America; several are cosmopolitan weeds
  • Southern Africa : Species 7, fairly widespread throughout warm, arid regions, often found in disturbed areas, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern, Western (only Beaufort-West District) and Eastern Cape

References:

  • BAKER, J.G. & WRIGHT, C.H. 1909. Nyctagineae . Flora of tropical Africa 6,1
  • BITTRICH, V. & KÜHN, U. 1993. Nyctaginaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
  • BROWN, R. 1810. Nyctagines Juss. Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae van-Diemen 1. Johnson & Co., London
  • BURTT DAVY, J. 1926. Nyctaginaceae . A manual of the flowering plants and ferns of the Transvaal with Swaziland 1. Longmans, Green & Co., London
  • CHOISY, J.D. 1849. Nyctagineae . In A. de Candolle, Prodromus 13,2. V. Masson, Paris
  • CODD, L.E.W. 1966. Notes on Boerhavia in southern Africa. Bothalia 9
  • COOKE, T. 1910. Nyctagineae . Flora capensis 5,1
  • FOSBERG, F.R. 1978. Studies in the genus Boerhavia L. ( Nyctaginaceae ). Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 39
  • HEIMERL, A. 1889. Nyctaginaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,1b
  • HEIMERL, A. 1934. Nyctaginaceae . Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien , edn 2, 16c
  • HOOKER, J.D. 1880. Nyctaginaceae . In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 3,1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
  • JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Nyctagines, les Nictages. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita . Herissant & Barrois, Paris
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum , edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1754. Genera plantarum , edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • SCHREIBER, A. 1969. Nyctaginaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 25
  • STANNARD, B.L. 1988. Nyctaginaceae . Flora zambesiaca 9,1
  • STANDLEY, P.C. 1918. Allioniaceae . North American Flora 21
  • STEMMERIK, J.F. 1964. Nyctaginaceae . Flora Malesiana , Ser. 1, Vol. 6,3
  • STIRTON, C.H. 1982. Nyctaginaceae . The identity of Boerhaavia pterocarpa in South Africa. Bothalia 14
  • THULIN, M. 1993. Nyctaginaceae . Flora of Somalia 1
  • WHITEHOUSE, C. 1996. Flora of tropical East Africa . Nyctaginaceae

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