Source:
SSA
Description:
Erect or decumbent annual herbs, low, rigid, much, dichotomously branched; stems angled, with a single line of reversed hairs. Leaves opposite, subulate, pungent, expanding into membranous, connate bases; stipules 0. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, few-flowered cymes or flowers solitary; bracts leaf-like. Flowers bisexual, perigynous, sessile, very small, green. Calyx: tube campanulate, herbaceous when young, becoming crustaceous with age; lobes 5. Petals 0. Stamens 5, arising in throat of calyx tube; filaments subulate. Ovary ovoid, 1-locular; ovule 1(2), pendulous from a basal funicle; styles 2, free, filiform, erect. Fruit a nutlet enclosed by enlarged and indurated wall of perigynous zone and persistent, hardened calyx tube and crowned by persistent calyx lobes. Seed 1, subglobose to horseshoe-shaped, smooth; embryo curved, peripheral; endosperm abundant. x= 11 (12) ( polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species +/- 10, temperate Eurasia, Mediterranean, Ethiopia, Australasia, 1 naturalised species in sthn Afr.: * Scleranthus annuus L., introduced from Europe, before the end of 19th century, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape. It is a troublesome weed in wheat and lucerne lands and has been suspected of causing poisoning in sheep.
Classification:
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