genus descriptions: SSTAs

Luffa

Mill.
Description:
Monoecious, annual, prostrate or scandent herbs. Leaves simple, palmately 5-7-lobed, petiolate, asperulose or scabrid, petiolate. Tendrils proximally 2-6-fid. Flowers unisexual. Male flowers racemose; receptacle tube broadly campanulate, lobes large, enclosing petals in bud, entire; petals 5, free, entire, yellow or whitish; stamens 5, all 1-thecous, or three 1-thecous, or two 2-thecous and one 1-thecous; filaments arising on receptacle tube, free; anthers free; connectives broad; thecae much convoluted. Female flowers solitary; ovary smooth, ribbed, tuberculate or spiny; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed. Fruit globose to cylindric, rostrate, smooth, ribbed or spiny, dry, brownish, fibrous, dehiscent by an apical operculum. Seeds compressed, oblong-elliptic in outline.
Distribution:
Species 7, tropical, 4 in Old World; sthn trop. Afr. 2, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique; frequently cultivated.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Raphidiocystis

Hook.f.
Description:
Monoecious, scandent, +/-pilose herbs; stems up to 6 m long. Leaves simple, ovate in outline, unlobed to shortly palmately 3-5-lobed, petiolate. Tendrils simple. Probracts present. Flowers unisexual. Male flowers in sessile axillary fascicles, bracteate; receptacle tube short, obconic-campanulate, lobes lanceolate to broadly foliaceous, often pinnately divided into narrow or +/-expanded often deflexed lobes; corolla gamopetalous, 5-lobed, lobes entire, yellow; stamens 3, all 2-thecous; filaments arising on upper part of receptacle tube, thecae flexuous. Female flowers fewer than males and coaxillary with them; perianth similar to that of male flower, receptacle lobes usually smaller and less divided; ovary densely setose; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed. Fruit subglobose to ellipsoid-cylindric, fleshy, densely echinate with multicellular brownish setae, dehiscent by 10 apical valves and extruding seeds and placentae. Seeds asymmetrically broadly ovate in outline, compressed; testa smooth, bordered.
Distribution:
Species 5, trop. Africa and Madagascar; sthn trop Afr. 2, Angola, Zimbabwe.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Sicyos

L.
Description:
Monoecious, annual, climbing or trailing herbs; stems usually +/-hairy; tendrils 3-5-fid. Leaves simple, palmately 5-lobed, broadly ovate- or reniform-cordate in outline. Male flowers small, few to many in simple or branched racemes, often whorled or +/-capitate; receptacle tube shallowly campanulate, lobes 5, small, dentiform; petals 5, united at very base, entire; stamens 3, filaments arising at base of tube, united into a central column, anthers united into a head or sometimes +/-free, thecae arcuate, flexuose or triplicate. Female flowers 3-20 subsessile in capitate, pedunculate groups, smaller than and coaxillary with male flowers; receptacle tube campanulate, lobes 5, triangular-subulate; petals 5, +/-triangular; ovary 1-locular, ovoid and beaked, beset with forward-curving, subappressed bristles; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit rather small, dry and coriaceous or woody, 1-seeded, eventually splitting, ovoid and beaked or fusiform, +/-hairy and usually beset with bristles or spines, each arising on a small basal tubercle, 3-20 borne in subsessile clusters on a short to fairly long peduncle. Seed broadly ovate-oblong in outline, compressed, with slight apical thickenings; testa smooth, brown.
Distribution:
Species 50, tropical America, Australia, New Zealand; sthn trop. Afr. 1: *Sicyos polyacanthus Cogn., naturalised in Angola.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Telfairia

Hook.
Description:
Dioecious lianes, up to 30 m or longer. Leaves pedately 3-7-foliolate. Tendrils proximally bifid. Probracts present. Flowers unisexual, large, purplish. Male flowers many, racemose; receptacle tube short, broad; lobes dentate; petals 5, free, fringed with filaments; stamens 5 or 3, if 5, then all 2-thecous, if 3, then two 4-thecous, one 2-thecous, free; filaments arising on receptacle tube; thecae straight or slightly arcuate. Female flowers solitary; perianth similar to that of male flower; ovary ribbed; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed. Fruit very large, fleshy, ribbed, many-seeded, tardily dehiscent by 10 longitudinal valves. Seeds large, broadly ovate or suborbicular in outline, compressed, enclosed in a fibrous endocarpic sheath.
Distribution:
Species 3, Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 2, Angola, Zambia and probably native in N Mozambique, often cultivated for its edible oily seeds.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Tetracera

L.
Description:
Description as for family.
Distribution:
Species 40, tropical; sthn trop. Afr. 6, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Pterocephalus

Adans.
Description:
Woody subshrubs with erect leafy shoots bearing several capitula; stems hollow, branched, pubescent, in lower parts mixed with long, glandular-based hairs. Leaves opposite, connate, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, toothed, with 1 or 2 pairs of linear-lanceolate or linear leaflets at base. Flowers aggregated into hemispherical or globular heads, with 1 or 2 rows of foliaceous receptacular bracts; receptacle scales hairy or 0; involucel +/-sulcate, 8-furrowed, toothed or with a +/-membranous corona. Calyx short, with 5-24 plumose setae of equal length. Corolla usually 5-fid or with 4-6-fid flowers in same head, rarely entirely 4-fid. Stamens 4. Ovary : stigma oblique, entire or slightly 2-lobed. Fruit : mature fruit unknown.
Distribution:
Species +/-25, found mainly in the Middle East, spreading to Southern Europe, India, China and Thailand, a few species occurring in the Canary Isles and North and East Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Pterocephalus centennii M.J.Cannon, Mozambique.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Vismia

Vand.
Description:
Small trees, shrubs or lianes with orange latex. Leaves opposite, petiolate with an interpetiolar ridge, entire, ovate to elliptic, with opaque glandular dots. Inflorescences terminal or axillary cymes, cymose panicles or glomerules. Flowers bisexual, regular. Sepals 5, +/-ovate, with longitudinal linear glands, persistent. Petals 5, narrowly obovate, villose within, with longitudinal linear glands or glanddots, caducous. Interstaminal glands 5, glabrous. Stamens in 5 bundles of few to many stamens opposite petals; upper part of filaments free; anthers longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 5-locular; ovules 5 or more per locule, arranged in 2 rows; styles 5, free, +/-persistent. Fruit a berry. Seeds many, dry; radicle very short.
Distribution:
Species 51, tropical America and Africa (7 spp.); sthn trop. Afr. 4, Angola, Mozambique.
Source:
SSTA
Synonym(s):
Caopia Adans.; Hiern: 58 (1896).

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Cochlospermum

Kunth
Description:
Description as for family.
Distribution:
Species 15, tropics of America, Africa, Asia and Australia; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Cochlospermum angolense Welw. ex Oliv., Angola.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Conocarpus

L.
Description:
Shrubs or trees (mangroves); bark fissured; branches subangular to narrowly winged, pubescent when young. Leaves alternate, petiolate, somewhat fleshy, with 2 or 4 glands at base, entire, with domatia along midrib in axils of secondary veins. Flowers bisexual, small, crowded in dense, cone-shaped heads borne in racemes. Calyx : tube compressed, truncate, not prolonged above ovary; limb urceolate, 5(6)-lobed, deciduous. Petals absent. Stamens (5)7(10), in 2 whorls, exserted; filaments filiform, glabrous. Disc long-pubescent. Ovary inferior, 1-locular; ovules 2. Fruit a trapezoidal, samara-like, glabrous, brownish maroon achene with a corky pericarp. Seeds cylindric, curved, whitish.
Distribution:
Species 2, seashores in tropical America and tropical W Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Conocarpus erectus L., Angola.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith
Laguncularia

C.F.Gaertn.
Description:
Polygamous shrubs or small trees (mangroves); branchlets glabrous. Leaves opposite, petiolate, coriaceous to fleshy, obovate or elliptic, glabrous; petiole with a pair of glands towards top. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, sessile, subpaniculate; bracts ovate; bracteoles adnate to calyx tube. Calyx : tube turbinate, not prolonged above ovary; limb urceolate, 5-fid, persistent. Petals absent, or minute and caducous. Stamens 10, in 2 rows, included. Ovary inferior, 1-locular, crowned by an epigynous disc; ovules 2. Fruit coriaceous, crowned by calyx limb, shortly club-shaped, subtrigonous, ribbed, shortly pubescent. Seed oblong-ovoid.
Distribution:
Species 2, Atlantic coast of tropical America and W coast of Africa from Senegal to Angola; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Laguncularia racemosa (L.) P.Gaertn., Angola.
Source:
SSTA

Mon, 2009-03-23 12:56 -- Emily Smith

Pages