Source:
SSA
Synonym(s):
Diplochonium Fenzl: 461 (1862); Sonder: 473(1862).
Description:
Annual or perennial herbs or undershrubs, creeping to erect, succulent, glabrous; stems several from a short tap root, often reddish; branches rarely rooting. Leaves opposite to alternate, sessile or petiolate, succulent; stipules 0, but with membranes at base of petiole. Flowers bisexual, solitary, sessile or pedunculate, axillary, with 2 basal bracteoles. Perianth 5-lobed; lobes triangular, with long unifacial dorsal appendages. Stamens 5-many, free or connate at base, arising from mouth of calyx tube; filaments filiform or subulate; anthers small, often reddish. Ovary superior, 2-5-locular; ovules many per locule, anacampylotropous; placentation axile; styles 2-5, linear, erect; stigma longitudinal, papillose. Fruit a circumscissile membranous capsule, enclosed within persistent perianth with +/- conical top. Seeds many, small, round to reniform, smooth, black, arillate; embryo annular; cotyledons oblong, fleshy; endosperm soft, starchy. x= 8, 9 (aneuploids, polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species +/- 12, tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres, but mainly African, inhabiting saline sandy dunes and beaches, riverbeds, marshes; +/- 4 in sthn Afr., Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province and Northern Cape.
Classification:
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