e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1710924567413_09018648020310205" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Melia<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1710924567413_7707913046558335" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>nthus
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Melianthaceae - Melianthus L.

Description:

  • Shrubs or undershrubs, often with unpleasant smell
  • Leaves: rachis winged; leaflets unequally sided, toothed, glabrous or hairy
  • Flowers generally bisexual, usually conspicuous, solitary, 2-4 together at nodes, or in racemes
  • Calyx 5-partite, large, asymmetric, with or without a saccate gibbosity at base, hairy within and without
  • Petals 4(5), spatulate with hairy claw
  • Disc large, unilateral, variously adnate to sepals
  • Stamens 4, arising inside nectary, didynamous; filaments free
  • Ovary 4-lobed, 4-locular, with 2-4 ovules in 2 rows in each locule; style persistent, usually hairy at base
  • Fruit a membranous, woody or leathery capsule, 4-lobed or 4-winged, glabrous or hairy
  • Seeds black, shiny, without an aril
  • x = 18, 19 (1 report each)

Nomenclature:

  • Melianthus L.
    • Linnaeus: 639 (1753)
    • Sonder: 367 (1860)
    • Phillips & Hofmeyer: 351 (1927)
    • Dyer: t. 1140 (1952)
    • Dyer: t. 1310 (1959)
    • Tansley & Schelpe:143 (1984)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Southern Africa: Species 6, widespread in both dry and moist areas

References:

  • DYER, R.A. 1952. Melianthus villosus. The Flowering Plants of Africa 29
  • DYER, R.A. 1959. Melianthus insignis. The Flowering Plants of Africa 33
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. & HOFMEYER, J. 1927. The genus Melianthus. Bothalia 2
  • SONDER, O.W. 1860. Meliantheae. Flora capensis 1
  • TANSLEY, S.A. & SCHELPE, E.A.C.L.E. 1984. Two new combinations in Melianthus. Bothalia 15

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