Perennial herbs with fleshy, tuberous root and slender, leafless scapes
Leaves basal, arising after flowering, the first formed ones finely dissected or sometimes pinnate with broad, dentate lobes, the later ones variously dissected, usually finely bi- or triternate, segments dentate
Flowers in compound umbels; involucre often absent
Calyx with or without minute teeth
Petals obovate or elliptic, with long, inflexed apex and keeled inner face
Disc shortly conical
Stamens slightly shorter than petals; filaments terete; anthers elliptic
Styles short
Fruit small, ovoid, shorter than 4 mm, usually narrowing towards apex, ribbed; mericarps flat on face, convex on back, with 5 prominent ribs; oil ducts 6, 1 in each furrow, 2 on face; carpophore bipartite
Seeds semiterete
Nomenclature:
Chamarea Eckl. & Zeyh.
Ecklon & Zeyher: 346 (1837)
Sonder: 538 (1862), under Carum
Burtt: 200, 261 (1991)
Pimenov & Leonov: 35 (1993)
Distribution & Notes:
Southern Africa: Species 5 or more, widespread in the western, central and southern parts and eastwards as far as the Eastern Cape
References:
BURTT, B.L. 1991. Umbelliferae of southern Africa: an introduction and annotated checklist. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 48
ECKLON, C.F. & ZEYHER, C. 1837. Enumeratio plantarum africae australis extratropicae 3. Published by the author, Hamburg
PIMENOV, M.G. & LEONOV, M.V. 1993. The genera of the Umbelliferae. A nomenclator. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
SONDER, W. 1862. Umbelliferae. Flora capensis 2
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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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