e-Key v3 - Sterculia
SANBI Flora Keys Logo
Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Sterculiaceae - Sterculia L.

Description :

  • Trees, deciduous, monoecious or dioecious; bark smooth, often peeling in papery flakes
  • Leaves simple or digitately compound; stipules 0
  • Flowers , at least functionally, unisexual, in axillary or terminal clusters on abbreviated shoots, or in panicles, produced before or with leaves
  • Calyx 5(6)-lobed, petaloid
  • Petals 0
  • Stamens : staminal tube giving rise to many stamens from rim of terminal cupule; filaments short; anthers bilocular, with longitudinal, extrorse dehiscence
  • Ovary of 4 or 5 cohering carpels on a disc surrounded by stamens, rudimentary in male flowers; styles cohering; stigma peltate or 4- or 5-lobed
  • Fruit separating into 1-5 follicles
  • Seeds 4-16 per follicle
  • x = 10 (6, 8) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Sterculia L.
    • Linnaeus: 1007 (1753)
    • Harvey: 178 (1860)
    • Wild: 551 (1961)
    • Friedrich-Holzhammer, Merxmüller & Roessler: 26 (1969)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 300, cosmopolitan in tropics
  • Southern Africa : Species 5, in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and 1 extending into Eastern Cape near Uitenhage

References:

  • FRIEDRICH-HOLZHAMMER, M., MERXMÜLLER, H. & ROESSLER, H. 1969. Sterculiaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 84
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1860. Sterculiaceae , Vent. & Byttneriaceae , R.Br. Flora capensis 1
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • WILD, H. 1961. Sterculiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 1