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

Flacourtiaceae - Oncoba Forssk.

Description :

  • Trees or shrubs, unarmed or with axillary spines; branches glabrous
  • Leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, elliptic or ovate, margin serrate; stipules present
  • Flowers bisexual, terminal or axillary, often on short sideshoots, usually large and showy
  • Sepals 3 or 4, free or united at base, imbricate
  • Petals 5-10 or more, exceeding the sepals, whorled
  • Stamens numerous, free; anthers linear
  • Ovary superior, 1-locular with 2-10 multiovulate parietal placentas; style simple
  • Fruit large, globose, with woody pericarp, smooth, indehiscent, many-seeded
  • Seeds with a leathery testa; embryo with leafy cotyledons
  • x = 11 (10)

Nomenclature:

  • Oncoba Forssk.
    • Forsskål: CXIII, 103 (1775)
    • Harvey: 66 (1860)
    • Wild: 275 (1960)
    • Killick: 56 (1976)
    • Hul & Breteler: 255 (1997)
  • Genus Xylotheca Hochst. regarded as synonymous to Oncoba Forssk. by Hul & Breteler (1997)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 4, Arabian Peninsula, tropical Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Oncoba spinosa Forssk., Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • FORSSKÅL, P. 1775. Flora aegyptiaco-arabica : CXIII, 103. Möller, Copenhagen
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1860. Bixaceae . Flora capensis 1
  • HUL, S. & BRETELER, F.J. 1997. Réductions génériques dans les Oncobeae ( Flacourtiaceae ). Adansonia , sér. 3, 19,2
  • KILLICK, D.J.B. 1976. Flacourtiaceae . Flora of southern Africa 22
  • WILD, H. 1960. Flacourtiaceae (including Samydaceae ). Flora zambesiaca 1