Perennial herbs or shrublets, erect to prostrate, rarely rooting at nodes
Leaves simple, petiolate or sessile; blade variously shaped from needle-like to ovate, sometimes cordate
Flowers in small, unisexual or bisexual, pendunculate, capitate umbels (umbellules), occasionally solitary; each umbel with a single, bisexual (functionally female) flower surrounded by 4 male flowers, or more often with a single-flowered bisexual umbel and several (1)3-5(7)-flowered male umbels (andromonoecious or androdioecious), rarely all flowers bisexual; bracts 2-4, usually lanceolate
Calyx appearing as annular ring
Petals valvate, ovate-acute, often with incurved tips
Disc ± flat
Stamens with anthers ± as long as linear flaments
Fruit of 2 laterally compressed mericarps; mericarps smooth or 9-11-ribbed, with ribs usually connected by network of veins; oil ducts indistinct or 0
x = 9 (11) (polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
Centella L.
Linnaeus: 28 (1760)
Sonder: 526 (1862), under Hydrocotyle
Schreiber: 1(1967)
Adamson: 1 (1951)
Burtt: 190 (1991)
Pimenov & Leonov: 33 (1993)
Schubert & B-E. van Wyk: 301 (1997)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 50, mostly in southern Africa, but a few extending to Zimbabwe and Malawi and 1: Centella asiatica (L.) Urban, cosmopolitan and pantropical
Southern Africa: Southwestern and eastern parts
References:
ADAMSON, R.S. 1951. A revision of the sub-genus Solandra of Centella. Journal of South African Botany 17
BURTT, B.L. 1991. Umbelliferae of southern Africa: an introduction and annotated checklist. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 48
LINNAEUS, C. 1760. Plantae rariores africanae. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
PIMENOV, M.G. & LEONOV, M.V. 1993. The genera of the Umbelliferae. A nomenclator. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
SCHREIBER, A. 1967. Apiaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 103
SCHUBERT, M.T.R. & VAN WYK, B-E. 1997. A revision of Centella series Capenses (Apiaceae). Nordic Journal of Botany 17,3
SONDER, O.W. 1862. Umbelliferae. Flora capensis 2
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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