e-Key v<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1699874218113_8794307222131077" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>3 - *Ornit<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1699874218113_901282608741796" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>hopus
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Fabaceae - Papilionoideae - Coronilleae - *Ornithopus L.

Description:

  • Slender annual herbs
  • Leaves imparipinnate; leaflets many, small, exstipellate; stipules lateral, linear, small or membranous
  • Flowers very small, in axillary heads or umbels, subtended or not by a floral leaf; bracts and bracteoles small
  • Calyx tubular or campanulate; lobes subequal or upper 2 connate high up
  • Petals: vexillum obovate or orbicular; wings oblong; keel obtuse, almost straight, shorter than wings or very short
  • Stamens diadelphous; vexillary stamen free, remainder connate, alternate filaments dilated above; anthers uniform
  • Ovary sessile, many-ovuled; style inflexed; stigma capitate
  • Pod linear, compressed or subterete, arcuate, usually constricted between segments
  • Seeds transversely oblong, ovate or subglobose
  • x = 7, 8 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • *Ornithopus L.
    • Linnaeus: 743 (1753)
    • Hutchinson: 464 (1964)
    • Ball: 182 (1968)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species ± 6, in Europe, Mediterranean region, W Asia, Atlantic Islands and South America
  • Southern Africa: Species 1: *Ornithopus sativus Brot. has become naturalised in the Western Cape

References:

  • BALL, P.W. 1968. Leguminosae. Flora europaea 2
  • HUTCHINSON, J. 1964. Order LEGUMINALES. The genera of flowering plants 1. Oxford University Press, Oxford
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm

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