Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes shrubby, monoecious
Leaves usually alternate, petiolate, simple, lobed or pinnately dissected, margins entire
Capitula unisexual
Male capitula in leafless spikes or racemes, usually drooping, hyaline, many-flowered
Involucre cup-shaped; bracts connate
Receptacle with filiform paleae or epaleate
Corolla tubular, campanulate above, 5-lobed
Anthers ± free, with incurved, linear apical appendage, base entire
Style undivided, truncate, penicillate
Ovary abortive
Female capitula sessile, solitary or clustered in upper leaf axils below males, 1-flowered
Involucre enveloping cypsela and becoming indurated, turbinate, with 4-6 spines on shoulder below neck through which long, linear, papillose style branches exserted
Corolla 0
Cypselas ovoid, smooth
Pappus 0
x = 9 (8) (aneuploids, high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
*Ambrosia L.
Linnaeus: 987 (1753)
Linnaeus: 425 (1754)
Oliver & Hiern: 370 (1877)
Phillips: 813 (1951)
Wild: 2 (1967)
Hilliard: 295 (1977)
Karis & Ryding: 621 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 43, North and South America
Southern Africa: Species 3, naturalised, known from North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Eastern Cape
References:
HILLIARD, O.M. 1977. Compositae in Natal. University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg
KARIS, P.O. & RYDING, O. 1994. Tribes Helenieae and Heliantheae. In K. Bremer, Asteraceae, cladistics and classification. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
LINNAEUS, C. VON. 1753. Species plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. VON. 1754. Genera plantarum, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
OLIVER, D & HIERN, W.P. 1877. Compositae. Flora of tropical Africa 3
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants, edn 2. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
WILD, H. 1967. The Compositae of the Flora zambesiaca area, 1. Kirkia 6
Copyright of the content hosted by this website remains with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), unless stated otherwise. Material from this site may be used in other media, provided that SANBI is acknowledged by the name South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) or refer to the 'How to cite this resource' paragraph on the Home page. Liability disclaimer: Visitors use this site at their own risk and SANBI is not liable for any of the consequences resulting therefrom.
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.
The system is still under development, so you may find a few bugs/issues. If you do, please report it via the error reporting button available in various sections of the website or provide us with any useful feedback you may have via the ‘Give us feedback’ option available in the sidebar menu. You can create a free account for yourself by clicking on the user profile icon which will take you through to the login page. Here you can choose the ‘Create an account’ option or simply fill in your details if you have an account already. Having an account on Biodiversity Advisor will provide users with free access to biodiversity resources.
In future, Team SANBI will be able to log in using their day-to-day login details, BGIS users will be able to use their existing accounts and details, and general users will be able to log in using their LinkedIn profile, but for now you will need to create an account.
