e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1706003516445_9796455684950938" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Amm<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1706003516446_7524405486137897" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>annia
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Lythraceae - Ammannia L.

Description:

  • Annual (possibly short-lived perennial) herbs; stem ± 4-angled
  • Leaves opposite-decussate, sessile
  • Inflorescence pedunculate or sessile, lax or condensed dichasial cymes of (1)3-many flowers; bracts 2 below each flower, small, subulate
  • Flowers 4- or 5-merous, never heterostylous
  • Calyx: tube broadly to narrowly campanulate, becoming globose in fruit, usually 4-lobed; lobes alternating with conical appendages or appendages 0, very short to nearly as long as lobes
  • Petals 1-4 or 0, caducuous
  • Stamens (2-)4(-8), arising from calyx tube, included or exserted, subequal
  • Ovary incompletely (1)2-5-locular, upper portion of septa incomplete; style 0-1.5 mm long
  • Capsule globose or ellipsoid, dehiscing irregularly
  • Seeds many and small, concave-convex, often with a float of thin-walled cells on concave side and margin which evaginates when moistened
  • x = 10, 13 (9, 11, 12, 17) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Ammannia L.
    • Linnaeus: 119 (1753)
    • Immelman: 35 (1991)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species ± 25, widespread in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions, 16 species recorded from Africa
  • Southern Africa: Species 4

References:

  • IMMELMAN, K.L. 1991. Synopsis of the genera Nesaea and Ammannia (Lythraceae) in southern Africa. Bothalia 21
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm