Slender herbs or small subshrubs, often with rigid indumentum, without stinging hairs; plants monoecious
Leaves alternate, toothed, petiolate, often whitish-tomentose beneath, with midrib branching into 3; arachnoid tomentum present; with dot-like cystoliths; stipules lateral, free
Inflorescences with flowers crowded within a tubular-campanulate 3-6-partite involucre, densely covered with woolly hairs
Male flowers many at periphery of inflorescence, stalked; perianth club-shaped in bud, becoming irregularly 3-lobed or 3-toothed; terminal lobe inflexed; stamen 1; rudimentary ovary 0
Female flowers sessile, l-5 in centre of male involucre; perianth 0; ovary straight; stigma filiform, papillose-hispid, long-persistent
Achene ovate in outline, compressed, woolly, enclosed in involucre
Seed with thin coat; endosperm scanty
x = 11 (1 report)
Nomenclature:
Forsskaolea L.
Linnaeus: 17 (1764)
Linnaeus: 72 (1767)
Forsskål: 82 (1775)
Jussieu: 403 (1789)
Endlicher: 285 (1837)
Weddell: 532 (1857)
Weddell: 23554 (1869)
Bentham: 393 (1880)
Engler: 117 (1888)
Brown: 556 (1925)
Roessler: P17:2-2 (1967)
Merxmüller & Roessler: 263 (1980)
Friis & Wilmot-Dear: 34 (1988)
Friis: 54 (1989)
Friis: 628 (1993)
Many orthographic variants of the name Forsskaolea exist in the literature
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 6, Canary and Cape Verde Islands, S Spain, India, North and South Africa
Southern Africa: Species 3, mainly Namibia and Northern Cape, also Western Cape
References:
BENTHAM, G. 1880. Tribus Urticeae. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 3. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
BROWN, N.E. 1925. Urticaceae. Flora capensis 5,2
ENDLICHER, S.L. 1837. Urticaceae. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita. Beck, Vienna
ENGLER, A. 1888. Urticaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,1
FORSSKÅL, P. 1775. Urticaceae. Flora aegyptiaco-arabica. Möller, Copenhagen
FRIIS, I. 1989. Flora of tropical East Africa. Urticaceae
FRIIS, I. 1993. Urticaceae. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
FRIIS, I. & WILMOT-DEAR, C.M. 1988. A revision of the tribe Forsskaoleae (Urticaceae). Nordic Journal Botany 8
JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Urticae. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita. Herissant & Barrois, Paris
LINNAEUS, C. 1764. Opobalsamum declaratum. Le Moine, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1767. Mantissa plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
MERXMÜLLER, H. & ROESSLER, H. 1980. Merkmals-Introgressionen bei Forsskaolea (Urticaceae). Mededelingen Landbouwhogeschool Wageningen, Miscellaneous Papers 19
ROESSLER, H. 1967. Urticaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 17
WEDDELL, H.A. 1857. Monographie de la famille des Urticacées. Gide & J. Baudry, Paris. Reprinted in Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 9
WEDDELL, H.A. 1869. Urticaceae. In A. de Candolle, Prodromus 16,1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
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