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

Fabaceae - Papilionoideae - Crotalarieae - Dichilus DC.

Description :

  • Undershrubs or herbs, slender
  • Leaves petiolate, digitately 3-foliolate; stipules inconspicuous or 0
  • Flowers 1-3 at ends of branches; bracts minute
  • Calyx distinctly shorter than corolla, with campanulate tube, 2-lipped, glabrous; upper lip 2-toothed or -lobed; lower Iip 3-toothed or -lobed
  • Petals : vexillum reflexed, oblong to suborbicular, with a short channelled claw; wings obliquely oblong, eared, clawed; keel slightly shorter than vexillum, much longer than wings, obovate, eared, saccate or gibbous, clawed
  • Stamens monadelphous; staminal tube split along upper side to base; anthers unequal
  • Ovary subsessile, linear, several-ovuled, ciliate on sutures; style incurved, with minutely capitate, terminal stigma
  • Pod narrowly oblong to linear, slightly compressed between seeds
  • Seeds without an aril, on short funicles
  • x = 14 (can also be 7)

Nomenclature:

  • Dichilus DC.
    • Candolle: 136 (1825)
    • Candolle: 201, t. 35 (1826)
    • Harvey: 77 (1862)
    • Schutte & Van Wyk: 182 (1988)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species ± 5, all in southern Africa, all countries/provinces except Northern and Western Cape

References:

  • CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1825. Prodromus 2. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
  • CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1826. Mémoires sur la famille des Légumineuses . Belin, Paris
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1862. Leguminosae . Flora capensis 2
  • SCHUTTE, A.L. & VAN WYK, B.-E. 1988. A synopsis of the genus Dichilus ( Fabaceae - Crotalarieae ). South African Journal of Botany 54,2