e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1705322925019_8541377830218211" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Acrosa<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1705322925019_6862881221754848" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>nthes
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Aizoaceae - Aizooideae - Acrosanthes Eckl. & Zeyh.

Description:

  • Prostrate to sprawling perennial undershrubs, branching dichasial with one branch dominant; stems woody at base
  • Leaves opposite, ± fleshy, glabrous; stipules 0
  • Inflorescence on suppressed dichasial branches, seemingly lateral, probably on well-developed vegetative base
  • Flowers perigynous, bisexual, small, pedunculate, solitary at nodes
  • Perianth 5-lobed with dorsal appendages; tube short, turbinate; lobes somewhat fleshy
  • Stamens 8-many, sometimes in groups
  • Ovary superior, incompletely divided by basal septum into 2 locules, each with 1 basal ovule; stigmas 2, short
  • Fruit a xerochastic capsule, persisting in perianth tube
  • Seeds reniform to orbicular; testa rugose to tuberculate, sometimes with an aril

Nomenclature:

  • Acrosanthes Eckl. & Zeyh.
    • Ecklon & Zeyher: 288 (1837)
    • Sonder: 471 (1862)
    • Pax & Hoffmann: 194 (1934)
    • Friedrich: 58 (1955)
    • Adamson: 23 (1959)
    • Bond & Goldblatt: 132 (1984)
    • Hartmann: 45 (1993)
  • Aizoon L. subgen. Acrosanthes D.Dietr.
    • Dietrich: 180 (1847)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species 5, Africa
  • Southern Africa: Species 5, Western Cape

References:

  • ADAMSON, R.S. 1959. The South African species of Aizoaceae. VI. Acrosanthes. Journal of South African Botany 25
  • BOND, P. & GOLDBLATT, P. 1984. Plants of the Cape Flora: a descriptive catalogue. Journal South African Botany, Supplementary No. 13
  • DIETRICH, D.N.F. 1847. Synopsis plantarum 4. Voigt, Weimar
  • ECKLON, C.F. & ZEYHER, K.L.P. 1837. Enumeratio plantarum africae australis extratropicae. Perth & Besser, Hamburg
  • FRIEDRICH, H.C. 1955. Beiträge zur Kenntnis einiger Familien der CENTROSPERMAE. Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung München 2
  • HARTMANN, H.E.K. 1993. Aizoaceae. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
  • PAX, F. & HOFFMANN, K. 1934. Aizoaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, edn 2,16c
  • SONDER, O.W. 1862. Mesembryaceae (excl. Tetragonia). Flora capensis 2