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

Hyacinthaceae - Androsiphon Schltr.

Description :

  • Perennial, dwarf, deciduous, bulbous herbs
  • Bulb globose, with outer covering of thin, brown tunics
  • Leaves 2, contemporary with flowers, spreading, ovate, glabrous, dark green, sometimes with darker green spots
  • Inflorescence a capitate head, situated between the leaves; peduncle terete, lengthening in fruit; bracts small and linear
  • Flowers golden yellow, regular; pedicels long, firm, recurved in fruit
  • Tepals fused below forming a tube; lobes erect or erect-spreading, linear-oblong, somewhat longer than tube
  • Stamens 6, in one whorl, longer than tepals; filaments fused, forming a long, cylindrical tube arising from mouth of perianth tube, top of filament tube forming a disc through which the style emerges, free portion of filaments erect-spreading; anthers versatile, introrse
  • Ovary narrowly ovoid; ovules 8-15 per locule; style terete; stigma small, apical
  • Fruit an obtriangular capsule, valves lengthened above into notched, attenuated transparent wings; dehiscing loculicidally
  • Seeds globose, black, smooth
  • x = 8 (1 report, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Androsiphon Schltr.
    • Schlechter: 147 (1924)
    • Barker: 21 (1936)
    • Jessop: 432 (1976)
    • Brandham: 124, t. 155 (1990)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Androsiphon capensis Schltr., Northern Cape, endemic to Calvinia District
    • Flowering recorded in June, August and September

References:

  • BARKER, W.F. 1936. Amphisiphon , a new genus of Liliaceae . Journal of South African Botany 2
  • BRANDHAM, P. 1990. Androsiphon capense . Kew Magazine 7
  • JESSOP, J.P. 1976. Studies in the bulbous Liliaceae in South Africa. The taxonomy of Massonia and allied genera. Journal of South African Botany 42
  • SCHLECHTER, R. 1924. Drei neue Gattungen der Liliaceen aus Südafrika. Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem 9