e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1709289654719_2011996281243711" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Epil<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1709289654719_17290038936709484" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>obium
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Onagraceae - Epilobium L.

Description:

  • Perennial herbs, often flowering in first year
  • Leaves alternate above, opposite below, simple, entire or toothed; stipules 0
  • Flowers regular, borne in axils of reduced upper leaves, their opening not highly synchronised
  • Sepals 4, caducous; floral tube present
  • Petals 4, rose-purple to white, notched
  • Stamens 8; anthers linear to oblong; pollen shed in tetrads
  • Ovary with many uniseriate ovules in each locule; stigma entire or 4-lobed
  • Fruit a slender loculicidal capsule
  • Seeds ellipsoid, brown, with a terminal tuft of hairs (coma)
  • x = 9 (13) (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

  • Epilobium L.
    • Linnaeus: 347 (1753)
    • Harvey: 506 (1862)
    • Raven: 309 (1967)
    • Goldblatt & Raven: 153 (1997)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species 185, with a centre of diversity in North America, 10 in Africa
  • Southern Africa: Species 4, Namibia, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape

References:

  • GOLDBLATT, P. & RAVEN, P.H. 1997. FSA contributions 9: Onagraceae. Bothalia 27
  • HARVEY, W.H. 1862. Onagrarieae. Flora capensis 2
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • RAVEN, P.H. 1967. A revision of the African species of Epilobium (Onagraceae). Bothalia 9

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