e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1705323194847_7870482382721584" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Adan<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1705323194847_7767948018285413" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>sonia
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Bombacaceae - Adansonia L.

Description:

  • Trees with fibrous and fleshy trunks, sometimes attaining a very large girth
  • Leaves alternate, simple on seedlings, digitately 3-9-foliolate on more mature plants; leaflets entire; stipules present
  • Flowers ± regular, bisexual, usually solitary, large, pendulous; large bracts and bracteoles usually present
  • Calyx leathery, 5-segmented or -lobed, valvate in bud
  • Petals 5, adhering to base of staminal tube, large and crinkled
  • Stamens many, united into a tube below; anthers reniform, 1-thecous, opening by longitudinal slits; pollen smooth
  • Ovary superior, 5-10-locular, with many axile ovules in each locule; style simple; stigma 5-10-lobed
  • Fruit indehiscent, woody
  • Seeds many, embedded in dry, white pulp
  • x = 8 (high polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Adansonia L.
    • Linnaeus: 1190 (1753)
    • Wild: 512 (1961)
    • Baum: 440 (1995)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species 8, in 3 sections, tropical Africa, Madagascar and Australia, but dispersed widely by humans
  • Southern Africa: Species 1: Adansonia digitata L., the Baobab, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West and Mpumalanga, rarely south of the Soutpansberg, except in cultivation

References:

  • BAUM, D.A. 1995. A systematic revision of Adansonia (Bombacaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 82
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • WILD, H. 1961. Bombacaceae. Flora zambesiaca 1