genus descriptions: SSTAs

Anubias

Schott
Description:
Evergreen herbs; rhizome thick, creeping, with short internodes. Leaves several; petiole usually smooth, rarely shortly and sparsely spiny, geniculate apically; sheath relatively short; blade simple to trifid, lanceolate, ovate, elliptic, nearly triangular to subsagittate, glabrous or midrib and primary veins densely pilose abaxially, primary lateral veins pinnate, secondary lateral veins parallel-pinnate, tertiaries transverse between them. Inflorescence 1
Distribution:
Species 8, tropical west and central Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Anubias heterophylla Engl., Angola.
Source:
SSTA
Synonym(s):
Amauriella Rendle: 115 (1913).

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Remusatia

Schott
Description:
Small to medium, seasonally dormant perennial herbs; tuber subglobose, producing erect to spreading unbranched or branched stem branches from axils of small deciduous scale leaves; stem branches producing small, scaly, ovoid tubercles at nodes. Leaves 1 or 2, basal; petiole sometimes slender with relatively short sheath; blade peltate, cordate-lanceolate to cordate-ovate, basal ribs well-developed, primary lateral veins pinnate, forming submarginal collective vein very close to margin. Inflorescence solitary, appearing with or without leaf; peduncle shorter than petiole. Spathe strongly constricted between tube and fully expanded or convolute blade; tube with convolute margins, persistent, enclosing female and sterile zone of spadix; blade yellow or red, longer than tube, later deciduous. Spadix much shorter than spathe, sessile or subsessile; female zone subcylindric,
Distribution:
Species 4, trop. Africa, Madagascar, tropical Asia to Indonesia and Australia; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Remusatia vivipara (Roxb.) Schott, Zambia.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Calamus

L.
Description:
Acaulescent, climbing, dioecious, flowering each year when mature. Leaves pinnate, usually with a knee above sheath; sheath often bearing straight spines and sometimes a flagellum; rachis with sharp recurved hooks, not ending in a cirrus; leaflets many, with a single fold, with fine spines on margin and sometimes on lower surface. Inflorescence axillary; male branched to 3 orders; female to 2; outer sheathing bract strictly tubular, persistent; male flowers solitary; female flowers in pairs, or a female flower paired with a sterile male flower. Male flowers: calyx much shorter than corolla; stamens 6; anthers elongate, latrorse. Female flowers much larger than male ones; ovary with large, fleshy, recurved stigmas. Fruit 1
Distribution:
Species
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Eremospatha

(G.Mann & H.Wendl.) H.Wendl.
Description:
Caespitose climbers, flowering each year when mature; stems long, slender, ringed. Leaves pinnate with
Distribution:
Species 12 (but probably fewer), trop. Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 3, Angola, Zambia.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Jodrellia

Baijnath
Description:
Succulent, perennial, acaulescent herbs; rootstock short; roots fusiform, fleshy, rootlets slender. Leaves rosulate, several to many, glabrous, outer ones scale-like and tubular at base, interior ones subterete, smaller. Inflorescence a many-flowered, compact raceme, shorter than leaves; peduncles 1
Distribution:
Species 2 or 3, trop. Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Jodrellia fistulosa (Chiov.) Baijnath, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Behnia

Didr.
Description:
Description as for family.
Distribution:
Monotypic genus: Behnia reticulata (Thunb.) Didr.; sthn trop. Afr.: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, and sthn Afr.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Afrothismia

(Engl.) Schltr.
Description:
Small, fleshy, saprophytic perennial herbs, usually with a single stem; rhizome cylindric, each node with clusters of tuberous bulbils, each with a filamentous root. Leaves alternate, cauline, small, scale-like, sparse. Flowers irregular, relatively large, in a simple or bifurcate, 1
Distribution:
Species
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Anthericopsis

Engl.
Description:
Perennial, completely glabrous herbs, dormant in dry season; tubers at ends of thin wiry roots. Leaves spirally arranged, all or mostly in a basal rosette, sessile. Inflorescence sometimes subsessile at first flowering, eventually long-pedunculate, scapose or subscapose, terminal and axillary, composed of 1 or 2 sessile, contracted, bracteolate cincinni arranged umbel-like at summit of scape. Flowers bisexual, regular, pedicelled. Sepals 3, free, equal, sepaline. Petals 3, free, equal, not clawed. Stamens 3, antepetalous, free, equal; filaments glabrous; staminodes 3, antepetalous, free; antherodes small, unlobed. Ovary 3-locular, 3-valved; ovules many. Fruit a 3-valved capsule. Seeds 8
Distribution:
Monotypic: Anthericopsis sepalosa (C.B.Cl.) Engl. (= Aneilema sepalosa C.B.Cl.; Gillettia sepalosa (C.B.Cl.) Rendle), eastern trop. Afr.; sthn trop. Afr.: Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Palisota

Rchb. ex Endl.
Description:
Perennial herbs, generally medium- to large-sized, with a distinct aerial main stem or with rosettes of leaves at ground level. Leaves spirally arranged or in pseudowhorls, petiolate. Inflorescence thyrsiform, pedunculate, terminal and/or axillary. Flowers bisexual and male, slightly irregular, pedicellate. Sepals 3, subequal. Petals 3, free, subequal. Stamens 3, 2 posterior ones shorter and with sterile pollen, anterior stamen longer and with fertile pollen; staminodes 2 or 3, subequal or posterior one different or lacking. Ovary 3-locular; ovules 1
Distribution:
Species
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith
Pollia

Thunb.
Description:
Stoloniferous or rhizomatous perennial herbs; main stem monopodial,
Distribution:
Species 17, pantropical and warm temperate; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Pollia condensata C.B.Clarke, Angola.
Source:
SSTA
Synonym(s):
Aclisia E.Mey.

Mon, 2009-03-23 15:23 -- Emily Smith

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