Source:
SSA
Synonym(s):
Australina in sense of other authors, not of Gaudich.; Rendle: 305 (1917); Brown: 552 (1925).
Description:
Prostrate, ascending or erect, slender annual herbs, often much branched from all parts of main stem, without stinging hairs; plants monoecious or dioecious by abortion. Leaves alternate, but lower 1 or 2 pairs often opposite, serrate, crenate or entire, petiolate, with dot-like cystoliths; stipules lateral, free. Inflorescences axillary, sessile, with free, often ciliate or bristle-bearing bracts, usually shorter than densely clustered flowers. Male flowers few together, sessile or subsessile; perianth boat-shaped, sometimes almost bract-like, split along one side, with erect tip and slightly connate cylindrical base; stamen 1; rudimentary ovary 0. Female flowers few, sessile, with perianth 0; ovary erect, with a subcapitate or shortly linear style; stigma filiform or linear. Achene slightly winged along one side, other side rounded; frequently 2 ovaries or achenes joining along rounded side to form a double fruit twice the size of two single fruits. Seeds both developing, with thin coat.
Distribution:
Species 2, mountains of eastern tropical Africa, as far north as N Ethiopia; 2 in sthn Afr., Namibia, Northern Province, Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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