genus descriptions: SSTAs

Prenanthes

L.
Description:
Perennial herbs. Leaves entire or mostly variously lobed-pinnatisect, usually ovate-cordate in outline. Capitula slender and rather few-flowered, often pendent, in corymbose to thyrsoid-paniculate, often elongate synflorescences. Florets violet, bluish, pink, purple, white, or rarely yellow; corolla glabrous. Cypselas terete to narrowly fusiform, 3- or 4-ribbed, glabrous and smooth or scabrid-hispid, not or hardly constricted below apex. Pappus of many stout, scabrid-barbellate bristles.
Distribution:
Species +/-30, Asia, N America, Central and S Europe, Canary Islands, Socotra, and trop. Africa; sthn trop. Afr. ?Angola (fide Brummitt (Unpublished); no other record seen).
Source:
SSTA

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

Hiern
Description:
Small annual herbs. Leaves rosulate, linear. Capitula discoid. Involucral bracts in 1 row. Florets yellow. Cypselas obovoid, 5-ribbed, glandular. Pappus of few, scabrid, soon caducous bristles.
Distribution:
Species 2, Angola.
Source:
SSTA
Synonym(s):
Oligothrix DC.; Mendonca: 126 (1943); Bremer: 506 (1994). Xyridopsis B.Nord.: 75 (1978).

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

Wild & G.V.Pope
Description:
Annual herbs. Leaves alternate, deeply pinnatisect. Capitula corymbose, homogamous, subglobose; involucral bracts in 4 or 5 rows; receptacle reticulo-foveolate. Florets bisexual, many, violet-purplish, glandular. Style branches subulate, hirsute. Cypselas obovoid, 4-sulcate, densely tuberculate. Pappus absent.
Distribution:
Species 2, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Source:
SSTA

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

B.Nord.
Description:
Annual herbs. Leaves entire or slightly serrate. Capitula radiate, solitary or laxly corymbose, small, few-flowered. Involucre ecalyculate; bracts connate. Receptacle conical. Florets : ray florets white or pale mauve; disc florets perfect, yellow. Filaments : collar much dilated. Cypselas oblong, 5-ribbed or thickly 5- to 7-winged, glabrous. Pappus absent.
Distribution:
Species 2, trop. Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Stenops helodes B.Nord., Zambia.
Source:
SSTA

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

Gaertn.
Description:
Annual or short-lived perennial herbs. Leaves opposite, crenate-serrate. Capitula radiate, glomerate or sometimes solitary. Involucral bracts few, in a single row. Receptacle with small, narrow paleae. Florets : rays female, yellow; disc florets 4-lobed, yellow. Anthers : appendages truncate to obtuse. Cypselas : ray cypselas elliptic, dorsiventrally compressed, with deeply lobate wings; disc cypselas clavate, tuberculate. Pappus in ray florets of 2 awns, connate to the wing; in disc florets of 2 or 3(4) awns.
Distribution:
Monotypic: *Synedrella nodiflora Gaertn., tropical America, naturalised throughout tropics; sthn trop. Afr. Angola, Malawi.
Source:
SSTA

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

O.Hoffm.
Description:
Perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, simple. Capitula disciform, paniculate. Involucral bracts in 4 or 5 rows. Receptacle honeycombed with toothed margins to the pits. Florets : marginal ones female, 4-lobed, yellow; disc florets functionally male. Cypselas : ray cypselas narrowly obconic, 2- to 6-ribbed. Pappus in marginal cypselas of 2-5 irregularly toothed scales.
Distribution:
Monotypic: Welwitschiella neriifolia O.Hoffm., Angola, Zambia.
Source:
SSTA

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

Vahl
Description:
Dioecious, fleshy, crimson to pink, later brownish root parasite arising from an underground tuber; tuber rhizome-like, cylindric, branched, swollen at point of contact with host root. Stem densely covered with many spirally arranged, triangular-lanceolate scale leaves; flowering stems breaking through buds on tuber leaving a short-lobed volva at base. Inflorescence unbranched, spadix-like with obconic terminally obtuse axis bearing many flowers at apex. Male flowers pedicellate; perianth segments 2-6, spirally arranged, linear; anthers 3-6, linear-elongate, united but apices free, 2-thecous, dehiscing extrorsely. Female flowers densely crowded, linear-prismatic; perianth tubular, obscurely 2- or 3-lobed; style 1, exserted. Infructescence a swollen hemisphere, bearing minute, 1-seeded achenes.
Distribution:
Monotypic: Thonningia sanguinea Vahl, trop. Africa; sthn trop. Afr.: N Angola, Zambia.
Source:
SSTA

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

L.
Description:
Description as for family.
Distribution:
Species +/-500, mostly Eurasia, North Africa, trop. African mountains and the Americas; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Berberis holstii Engl., Zambia, Malawi.
Source:
SSTA

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

(Fenzl) Seem.
Description:
Unarmed shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite, imparipinnate, deciduous. Flowers borne in terminal panicles, racemes or racemose panicles, fragrant, opening during night. Calyx spathaceously splitting along posterior side, beaked at apex. Corolla campanulate; tube narrowly cylindric, long, exceeding calyx; lobes 5, subequal, wavy at margin. Stamens 4, didynamous; anthers included, introrse, glabrous; staminode present, very small. Disc annular, thick. Ovary oblong, cylindric, 2-locular; ovules many, pluriseriate. Capsule narrowly linear in outline, terete or compressed parallel to false septum, straight or curved, bivalved, loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds flat, winged, 1-several on each side of wing.
Distribution:
Species +/-8, tropical Asia, Australia, Africa; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Dolichandrone alba (Sim) Sprague, known only from S Mozambique.
Source:
SSTA

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

Welw. ex Seem.
Description:
Shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite, imparipinnate, frequently absent at flowering time. Flowers large, in short, few-flowered racemes or solitary, borne praecociously and in axils of fallen leaves. Calyx campanulate, irregularly 3-5-lobed, opening just before corolla anthesis. Corolla large, showy, brownish red to orange-red or yellow, broadly cup-shaped; tube short, narrowing abruptly into calyx; limb slightly bilabiate. Stamens 4, slightly exserted; staminode 1; thecae divaricate. Disc cupular. Ovary cylindric, narrow, bilocular; ovules pluriseriate in each locule. Capsule subcylindric, dehiscing at right angles to the thin flat septum. Seeds many, compressed, with hyaline wings.
Distribution:
Species 8, 3 from Madagascar, 5 from African mainland; sthn trop. Afr. 3, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique.
Source:
SSTA

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

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