Erect, prostrate or climbing herbs, often with swollen or jointed nodes, or erect or semiscandent shrubs or trees with thick succulent stems
Tendrils present or 0, leaf-opposed or arising from a peduncle
Leaves alternate, simple or palmately 3-5-foliolate, rarely pedate, subsessile or petiolate; margins entire or variously toothed; stipules present or 0
Flowers regular, usually bisexual, usually in cymes opposite leaves; buds cylindric and constricted ± in middle, or conical to ovoid or depressed-globose, apex often inflated
Calyx entire or 4-6-lobed or -toothed
Corolla: petals 4-6, free, or often ± united at tips and falling as bud opens, valvate, becoming deflexed after anthesis, caducous
Disc intrastaminal, annular or of separate glands
Stamens 4-6, opposite petals; filaments free, straight or bending noticeably over gynoecium; anthers 2-thecous, medifixed, with longitudinal dehiscence
Ovary superior, 2-locular with 2 ovules in each locule; style short; stigma subulate to capitate
Fruit a berry, with 1-4 seeds
Seeds with copious, sometimes ruminate endosperm
Nomenclature:
Vitaceae
Hooker: 386 (1862)
Baker: 385 (1868)
Planchon: 318 (1884)
Phillips: 492 (1951)
Suessenguth: 174 (1953)
Wild & Drummond: 439 (1963)
Descoings: 67 (1968)
Merxmüller & Schreiber: 1 (1969)
Descoings: 3 (1972)
Verdcourt: 1 (1993)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Genera 14, species ± 1000, in tropical to temperate regions of both hemispheres
Southern Africa: Genera 5, species 53
References:
BAKER, J.J. 1868. Vitaceae. Flora of tropical Africa 1
DESCOINGS, B. 1968. Vitacées. Flore du Gabon 14
DESCOINGS, B. 1972. Vitacées. Flore du Cameroun 13
HOOKER, J.D. 1862. Ampelideae. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 1
MERXMÜLLER, H. & SCHREIBER A. 1969. Vitaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 80
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
PLANCHON, J.E. 1884. Les vignes américaines 8. Adrien Delahaye, Paris
SUESSENGUTH, K. 1953. Vitaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, edn 2, 20d
VERDCOURT, B. 1993. Flora of tropical East Africa. Vitaceae
WILD, H. & DRUMMOND, R.B. 1963. Vitaceae. Flora zambesiaca 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.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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