e-Key v3 - Cephalocroton
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Euphorbiaceae - Acalyphoideae - Epiprineae - Cephalocroton Hochst.

Description :

  • Shrubs, with stellate hairs; monoecious
  • Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate; stipules laciniate
  • Inflorescence a terminal raceme with male flowers in apical clusters and female flowers pedicelled, basal
  • Petals 0
  • Male flowers : calyx splitting into 3-5 valvate lobes; disc absent; stamens 5-8; filaments free; anther thecae separate in upper half; pistil rudimentary, columnar, entire or 2- or 3-lobed
  • Female flowers : sepals 4-6, unequal, shortly pinnatifid, accrescent in fruit, glandular and stellately hairy; disc small, annular; ovary 3(4)-locular, with a single ovule in each locule, glandular and stellately hairy; styles connate at base, lobed or multifid at apex
  • Fruit a woody capsule of 3(4) bivalved cocci
  • Seeds ovoid-subglobose, smooth, evenly greyish or marbled, ecarunculate; testa crustaceous and albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat

Nomenclature:

  • Cephalocroton Hochst.
    • Hochstetter: 370 (1841)
    • Prain: 458 (1920)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 282 (1987)
    • Webster: 79 (1994)
    • Radcliffe-Smith: 149 (1996)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 5, Africa; Socotra, Madagascar and Comoro Islands and Sri Lanka
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Cephalocroton mollis Klotzsch in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province and KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • HOCHSTETTER, C.H.F. 1841. Cephalocroton . Flora 24
  • PRAIN, D. 1920. Euphorbiaceae [in part]. Flora capensis 5, 2
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1987. Euphorbiaceae . Flora of tropical East Africa . Euphorbiaceae Part 1
  • RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1996. Euphorbiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 9, 4
  • WEBSTER, G.L. 1994. Synopsis of the genera and suprageneric taxa of Euphorbiaceae . Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 81