Source:
SSA
Description:
Perennial herbs or undershrubs, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves alternate, opposite or sometimes whorled, sessile; stipular glands present or 0. Flowers short-pedicelled in an open or condensed terminal racemose or paniculate scorpioid cyme, homostylous or 2 species distylous, perfect. Sepals 5, imbricate, outer occasionally entire or sparsely serrate or, more frequently, all with marginal glandular teeth. Petals 5, separate, convolute, yellow, frequently reddish-tinged in bud, short-lived. Stamens 5, united basally, with or without diminutive intervening staminodia. Ovary 5-carpellate, becoming partially 10-locular as a result of intrusion of false partitions. Styles 5, separate or united, sometimes nearly to summit; stigmas capitate. Fruit an ovate capsule, dehiscing into 10 1-seeded segments. Seeds shining, reddish brown. x = 9, 10 (7, 8) (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes).
Distribution:
Species +/- 230, cosmopolitan in temperate and subtropical regions; 14 in sthn Afr., all belonging to the section Linopsis, which ranges broadly from the Mediterranean region to sthn Afr. and to both North and South America; 13 species endemic to the Western and Eastern Cape. Linum thunbergii Eckl. & Zeyh. in Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Western and Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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