e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1709019278772_5725993552299953" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Cyclanther<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1709019278772_7729223188082532" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>opsis
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Cucurbitaceae - Cyclantheropsis Harms

Description:

  • Scandent herbs, stems becoming woody when old, arising from perennial tuberous rootstock
  • Leaves simple, petiolate
  • Tendrils apically 2-fid
  • Flowers small, greenish yellow, dioecious, regular
  • Male flowers in lax, many-flowered, axillary paniculoid fascicles: calyx with receptacle tube very shallow, lobes 5, small; petals 5, free, small; stamens united into a single central column, inserted on basal disc, thecae 2, semicircular, horizontal, apical on short central column, forming a split horizontal ring
  • Female flowers in rather few-flowered axillary fascicles: ovary compressed, 1-locular, styles 3, very short, ovule solitary, pendulous; perianth similar to that of male flower; disc 3-angled, basal
  • Fruit compressed, samaroid, 1-seeded, outline elliptic
  • Seed compressed, outline elliptic, rather large

Nomenclature:

  • Cyclantheropsis Harms
    • Harms: 169 (1896)
    • Jeffrey: 497 (1978)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species 3; 2 in Africa, 1 in Madagascar
  • Southern Africa: Species 1: Cyclantheropsis parviflora (Cogn.) Harms, Namibia in Caprivi area

References:

  • HARMS, H.A.T. 1896. Cyclantheropsis Harms, eine neue Cucurbitaceen-Gattung aus dem tropischen Afrika. Botanische Jahrbücher 23
  • JEFFREY, C. 1978. Cucurbitaceae. Flora zambesiaca 4