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

Anacardiaceae - Smodingium E.Mey. ex Sond.

Description :

  • Shrubs, dioecious, glabrous
  • Leaves alternate, digitately 3-foliolate, petiolate; leaflets lanceolate, coarsely toothed
  • Flowers small, in dense, terminal clusters
  • Male flowers : calyx 5-cleft, persistent; petals 5, reflexed; disc with subcrenate margin; stamens 5, opposite sepals
  • Female flowers : calyx and corollas as in male; disc annular; staminodes 5, rudimentary; ovary 1-locular, suborbicular, somewhat flattened, with a solitary, pendulous ovule; styles 3, free, lateral, persistent; stigmas capitate
  • Fruit an achene, with a membranous, winged pericarp, containing black, resinous ducts
  • Seeds kidney-shaped, with chartaceous testa

Nomenclature:

  • Smodingium E.Mey. ex Sond.
    • Sonder: 523 (1860)
    • Ellis: 259 (1974)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Smodingium argutum E.Mey. ex Sond., Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Eastern Cape

References:

  • SONDER, O.W. 1860. Terebintaceae . Flora capensis 1
  • ELLIS, R.P. 1974. Smodingium dermatitis: the intercellular secretory canals of the aerial axis and their relation to this toxity. Bothalia 11