Leaves simple or digitately 3-5-foliolate, margins entire or toothed; leaflets sessile or petiolate; stipules deltate, small
Flowers in dense or lax cymes or paniculate; buds subglobose
Calyx entire or obscurely 5-lobed
Corolla usually dark red; petals 5, oblong
Disc furrowed, ± entire, clasping ovary
Stamens 5; filaments half to two-thirds as long as petals
Ovary ribbed; style conical, very short; stigma capitate
Fruit subglobose, glabrous
Seeds usually 4, flattened, ellipsoid with a strongly marked, longitudinal keel on one side and a medium furrow or pit on the other, variously rugose
x = 10 (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Ampelocissus Planch.
Planchon: 372 (1884) name conserved
Planchon: 368 (1887)
Wild & Drummond: 439 (1963)
Descoings: 70 (1968)
Merxmüller & Schreiber: 1 (1969)
Descoings: 7 (1972)
Verdcourt: 2 (1993)
Botria Lour.
Loureiro: 153 (1790)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 100, cosmopolitan in the tropics
Southern Africa: 2 species: Ampelocissus africana (Lour.) Merr. is found in the northern parts of Namibia, and A. obtusata (Welw. ex Baker) Planch. subsp. kirkiana (Planch.) Wild & R.B.Drumm. occurs in Namibia, Botswana and Northern Province
References:
DESCOINGS, B. 1968. Vitacées. Flore du Gabon 14
DESCOINGS, B. 1972. Vitacées. Flore du Cameroun 13
LOUREIRO, J. DE. 1790. Flora cochinchinensis. Academy, Lisbon
MERXMÜLLER, H. & SCHREIBER A. 1969. Vitaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 80
PLANCHON, J.E. 1884. Les vignes américaines 8. Adrien Delahaye, Paris
PLANCHON, J.E. 1887. Ampelideae. In A.L.P.P. & A.C.P. de Candolle, Monographiae phanerogamarum 5,2. G. Masson, Paris
VERDCOURT, B. 1993. Flora of tropical East Africa. Vitaceae
WILD, H. & DRUMMOND, R.B. 1963. Vitaceae. Flora zambesiaca 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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