Leaves alternate, entire, glabrous, acicular to linear-spatulate
Flowers arranged racemosely on a central column, enclosed by incurved, much reduced fascicles of side branches, occasionally bearing flowers; the whole forming a globose head
Male inflorescence a lax, terminal, spike-like raceme
Female inflorescence a dense, involucrate foliaceous head
Male flowers: perianth glabrous, tubular, straight; segments free to base; claws and limbs merging imperceptibly, linear-acute; anthers subsessile; filaments arising from base of perianth; style straight, terete, thickened towards apex; hypogynous scales 0
Female flowers: ovary ovoid, densely pubescent, with 1 ovule; style terete, slightly curved, pubescent proximally, terminating in an oblique, stigmatic disc; perianth glabrous, widened proximally, tapering distally; limbs linear-lanceolate, recurved at anthesis; staminodes filiform-linear
Fruit an obovoid to somewhat compressed, pubescent achene, truncate, with long, dense, white cilia on the median ridge
x = 11
Nomenclature:
Aulax P.J.Bergius
Bergius: 33 (1767)
Stapf et al.: 505 (1912)
Venkata Rao: 238 (1969)
Rourke: 464 (1987)
Distribution & Notes:
Southern Africa: Species 3, Western Cape
References:
BERGIUS, P.J. 1767. Descriptiones plantarum ex Capite Bonae Spei. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
ROURKE, J.P. 1987. The inflorescence morphology and systematics of Aulax. South African Journal of Botany 53
STAPF, O, PHILLIPS, E.P. & HUTCHINSON, J. 1912. Proteaceae. Flora capensis 5,1
VENKATA RAO, C. 1969. Studies in the Proteaceae XII. Floral morphology, floral anatomy and embryology of Aulax Berg. with a discussion on the taxonomic position of the genus. Journal of the Indian Botanical Society 48
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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