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

Hypoxidaceae - Saniella Hilliard & B.L.Burtt

Description :

  • Dwarf geophytic, glabrous herbs
  • Rhizome small, oblong, fleshy; roots fleshy and contractile
  • Leaves 3-6, radical, deeply channelled above, membranous and sheathing at base
  • Inflorescence 1-flowered; scape reduced; bracts unknown
  • Flower stellate, white with pale yellow base; pedicels very short
  • Tepals arising from a long neck; segments spreading, elliptic, connate into a short perigone tube basally
  • Stamens 6, arising near base of perigone tube, outer with slightly longer filaments and slightly shorter anthers than inner stamens; filaments attached dorsally near anther base; anthers latrorse
  • Ovary trilocular; style short; stigma (2)3-fid, papillose on inner surface
  • Fruit subterranean, thin-walled, breaking open irregularly
  • Seeds ellipsoid, black, mammillate; raphe and micropyle conspicuous

Nomenclature:

  • Saniella Hilliard & B.L.Burtt
    • Hilliard & Burtt: 70 (1978)
    • Hilliard & Burtt: 130 (1987)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Saniella verna Hilliard & B.L.Burtt, endemic to the southern Drakensberg, at high altitudes, in KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Eastern Cape

References:

  • HILLIARD, O.M. & BURTT, B.L. 1978. Notes on some plants from southern Africa chiefly from Natal. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 36
  • HILLIARD, O.M. & BURTT, B.L. 1987. The botany of the southern Natal Drakensberg . National Botanic Gardens, Cape