e-Key v3 - Ke<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1706536873836_5143959771003446" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>y to Amaryllid<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1706536873836_9045813105877869" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>aceae Genera
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.
Backtrack a
  • Scape hollow or solid
  • Fruit dehiscent, leathery to papery
  • Seeds dry and black
b
  • Scape solid
  • Fruit dehiscent and papery or indehiscent and papery to fleshy
  • Seeds water-rich, cream, pink, reddish or green
Backtrack a
  • Scape solid
  • Filaments connate into a large conspicuous cup
  • Seeds globose to angular
b
  • Scape hollow at least at base or apex, rarely solid
  • Filaments free or shortly connate at the base
  • Seeds flattened, often winged
Backtrack a
  • Leaves 1-many, narrow, often spiralled
  • Inflorescence acaulescent, 1-flowered
  • Fruit clavate, cylindric or ellipsoid, much longer than wide, neither ribbed nor conspicuously veined
b
  • Leaves 2-many, narrow to broad, rarely spiralled
  • Inflorescence well developed above ground, (1-)many-flowered
  • Fruit subfusiform to globose or trigonous, rarely much longer than wide and then ribbed or conspicuously veined
Backtrack a
  • Leaves few-many, glabrous or pubescent, often with conspicuous sheaths
  • Stamens in a single series
  • Anthers 6-many
b
  • Leaves 1-few, glabrous, sheath not conspicuous
  • Stamens in 2 series
  • Anthers 6
Backtrack a
  • Plants rhizomatous or bulbous
  • Bulb tunics not producing extensible threads when torn
  • Leaves often speckled with red
  • Spathe valves 4 or more, often conspicuous
  • Fruit indehiscent, fleshy or pulpy
b
  • Plants bulbous
  • Tunics producing extensible threads when torn
  • Leaves immaculate or if speckled then fringed with bristles
  • Spathe valves 2, becoming inconspicuous
  • Fruit dehiscent or indehiscent, papery, membranous or rarely fleshy
Backtrack a
  • Plants with large, fleshy bulbs
  • Leaves sword- to tongue-shaped, without a midrib, succulent and often pubescent
b
  • Plants rhizomatous
  • Leaves glabrous
Backtrack a
  • Leaves with a petiole-like base and prominent midrib, thin-textured
  • Scape somewhat flattened, not ancipitous
  • Ovules 1 or 2 per locule
b
  • Leaves lanceolate, thick-textured, without a prominent midrib
  • Scape strongly compressed, 2-edged
  • Ovules usually more than 2 per locule
Backtrack a
  • Leaf margins hyaline, ± fringed with short, branched cilia
  • Pedicels usually shorter than flowers at anthesis
  • Filaments free to base
  • Fruit indehiscent, often beaked
  • Seeds thinly cork-covered
b
  • Leaf margins smooth, softly pubescent or raised, reddened and fringed with long bristles or short, branched cilia
  • Pedicels rarely shorter than flowers at anthesis
  • Filaments ± connate at the base, if free then fused to the style base
  • Fruit dehiscent, beakless
  • Seeds cutinous, not corky
Backtrack a
  • Leaves annual, distichous, closely abutting each other to form an erect fan
  • All leaf tips subacute to obtuse
  • Fruiting head detaching from scape apex
  • Fruit trigonous, prominently 3-ribbed
b
  • Leaves perennial, suberect or prostrate
  • Usually tips of all but youngest leaves truncate
  • Fruiting head not detaching from scape apex
  • Fruit irregulary-shaped, smooth or 6-ribbed
Backtrack a
  • Pedicels elongating and radiating after anthesis, dry and stout in fruit
  • Fruiting head detaching at ground level
  • Fruit 6-ribbed, walls papery
b
  • Pedicels remaining unchanged in fruit
  • Fruiting head persisting and drooping
  • Fruit membranous or rarely fleshy, smooth
Backtrack a
  • Leaves evenly spreading or in a vertical distichous pattern, suberect to recurved, often sheathing to form a false stem
  • Flowers irregular, sometimes only by deflexed style
  • Perigone tube mostly curved, occasionally straight
b
  • Leaves biflabellate, arching or spreading on the ground
  • Flowers regular
  • Perigone tube straight
Backtrack a
  • Leaves with a prominent midrib
  • Flowers longer than pedicels
  • Seeds slightly angled by compression, pink to colourless, with only the embyro green
b
  • Leaves without a midrib
  • Flowers ± equalling to much shorter than pedicels
  • Seeds ovoid, usually reddish, with integument and embryo green
Backtrack a
  • Flowers irregular (sometimes only by the deflexed style)
b
  • Flowers regular
Backtrack a
  • Leaves narrow, usually less than 25 mm wide, and subsucculent
  • Pedicels slender, rarely longer than flowers
  • Tepal margins ± undulate
  • Capsules subglobose and membranous, without conspicuous transverse veins
b
  • Leaves broad, usually more than 25 mm wide, and leathery
  • Pedicels stout, usually much longer than flowers
  • Tepal margins rarely crisped
  • Capsules trigonous to subfusiform, with conspicuous transverse veins
Backtrack a
  • Leaves immaculate
  • Margins smooth or fringed with short, branched cilia
  • Pedicels obscurely 3-angled in cross section
  • Filaments tightly clustered
  • Capsules prominently ribbed, tardily dehiscent
b
  • Leaves speckled with red
  • Margins fringed with long bristles
  • Pedicels sharply triangular in cross section
  • Filaments ± separate above the base
  • Capsules not ribbed, readily dehiscent
Backtrack a
  • Leaves 2(-4), glabrous or rarely minutely pilose
  • Flowers persisting after anthesis
  • Filaments connate into a short to long tube, free from style
  • Anthers centrifixed to subcentrifixed
  • Style slender
b
  • Leaves 2-6, glabrous or hairy
  • Flowers withering after anthesis
  • Filaments free or if fused then filament tube trilocular
  • At least one filament whorl adnate to style base
  • Anthers subcentrifixed to dorsifixed
Backtrack a
  • Leaves pubescent or glabrous, ovate to filiform
  • Tepals free
  • Outer or all filaments adnate to style base
  • Style winged or swollen basally
b
  • Leaves glabrous, filiform
  • Tepals connate into a distinct tube
  • Inner filaments adnate to style base
  • Style columnar throughout