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

Malvaceae - Hibisceae - Thespesia Sol. ex Corrêa

Description :

  • Small trees or shrubs
  • Leaves large, simple, mostly shallowly 3-lobed, lepidote
  • Flowers axillary and solitary or forming terminal racemes or panicles by reduction of upper leaves
  • Epicalyx of 3-5 early caducous bracts
  • Calyx cupuliform, truncate
  • Petals obovate, yellow, turning pinkish brown
  • Staminal tube densely covered with anthers ± throughout
  • Gynoecium 5-locular, with 3 or 4 ovules per locule; style undivided, club-shaped
  • Fruit subglobose, woody or somewhat fleshy, indehiscent or loculicidally 5-valved
  • Seeds irregularly lunate, ± glabrous
  • x = 13 (7, 12) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Thespesia Sol. ex Corrêa
    • Corrêa: 290, t. 8 fig. 2 (1807)
    • Exell: 421 (1960)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 17, ± cosmopolitan in tropics
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Thespesia acutiloba (Baker f.) Exell & Mendonça, N KwaZulu-Natal; bushveld and thickets on recent sands near coast

References:

  • CORRÊA, J.F. DA SERRA. 1807. Thespesia . Annales du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris 9
  • EXELL, A.W. 1960. Malvaceae . Flora zambesiaca 1