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

Solanaceae - *Datura L.

Description :

  • Annual herbs with regular candelabriform branching, glabrous or sparingly hairy
  • Leaves alternate, simple, dentate
  • Flowers solitary, large, white, pinkish or yellow, erect or cernuous
  • Calyx long, tubular, 5-fid or spathaceous, base often persistent
  • Corolla funnel-shaped; lobes 5-10, short, broad, often acuminate; limb plicate
  • Stamens 5, arising near base of corolla tube, included; anthers linear, dehiscing longitudinally, sometimes cohering into a tube
  • Ovary 2-locular or ± spuriously 4-celled; style filiform, dilated and 2-lamellate at apex
  • Fruit a spiny capsule, dehiscing by 4 valves or irregularly, subtended by reflexed enlarged base of calyx
  • x = 6 (aneuploids, high polyploidy, B-chromosomes - 1 report)

Nomenclature:

  • *Datura L.
    • Linnaeus: 179 (1753)
    • Henderson & Anderson: 264 (1966)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 8, New Worldl; some cultivated
  • Southern Africa : Species 3, naturalised and widespread

References:

  • HENDERSON, M. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 37
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum , edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm