Search Results

Information Annual herbs, erect, up to 60 cm tall small and simple or robust and much-branched. Stem and branches densely re-trorsely scabro-hispid. Basal leaves up to 30 cm long and 10 cm broad, but in the smaller plants as little as 5 cm long, petiolate, lyrate-pinnatifid, 3-7-jugate with the upper lobes ± confluent with the large, ovate, oblong or ± obovate, up to 8 x 9 cm, |_- obtusely denticulate terminal lobe; lateral lobes short and broad, obtuse, up to 6 X 4 cm, frequently pointing backwards. Stem leaves similar but gradually reduced in size, in number of lobes and in length of petiole till the uppermost leaves are sessile, amplexi-caul, oblong to broadly lanceolate, the margin dentate or serrate-denticulate; all leaves thinly to densely scabro-hispid, some­what glabrescent. Racemes 5-12-flowered, dense in flower, in fruit lax, elongate; rhachis scabro-hispid; pedicels all or only the lower ones subtended by a bract, sparsely hispid or puberulous; in fruit stout, wide-spreading, very unequal; lower fruiting pedicels 1-3 cm long, upper ones 2-7 mm long. Sepals 4-5-6 mm long, linear-oblong, puberulous or sparsely hispid. Petals 6-8 mm long, oblan-ceolate. Ovary linear, glabrous, but young developing fruit soon becoming puberulous; ovules 40-60, Siliquae 7-12-5 cm long, 1-9-2-2 mm broad, linear, subcompressed; valves strongly 3-nerved, rounded on the back, puberulous or rarely glabrous; style 2-5-4 mm long, stout, clavate. Seeds in 1 row, 1-1-1 X 0-7-0-8 mm, ovoid-oblong, light brown, finely reticulate; cotyledons folded longitudinally, emarginate. Fig. 14:3.

Information Erect herbs up to 1 m high with 1 or more annual or biennial stems from the peren­nial woody base. Stems patently grey hairy in the lower part, less dense higher up, only rarely completely glabrous. Lower leaves subrosulate, long-petiolate, up to 20 cm long and 6 cm broad, broadly lanceolate in outline, variously pinnately lobed with up to 12 pairs of lobes; lobes opposite or alternate, often pointing backwards, mostly broad, obtuse, dentate, occasionally acute, longer and sharp­ly dentate; patently hairy on both or only the lower surface, glabrescent, occasionally glab­rous. Stem leaves smaller, shortly petiolate with fewer, smaller and narrower lobes and less hairy; uppermost leaves usually quite glabrous, often sessile, ± lobed or dentate to subentire, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate Racemes dense, corymbose at first, lax, elongate in fruit; rhachis glabrous or sparsely hairy. Sepals 3-8-5-5 mm long, linear-ob­long, glabrous or at first sparsely hairy; the outer 2 cucullate, frequently slightly horn-tipped. Petals 6-8 mm long, 1-5-2-5 mm broad, spath There is one group of specimens which appears to consist of hybrids between S. capense and S. turczaninowii. They vary in size from quite small to 1 m high, are less densely hairy than S. turczaninowii, but more hairy than S. capense. The leaves are also ± intermediate, and so are the fruits which measure 2-3-4-5 cm x 1-1-3 mm in diameter, have sparsely hispid valves and the seeds in 2 rows.