Entry for Polygala kalaxariensis Schinz [family POLYGALACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 1, Part 1, page 303, (1960) Author: A. W. Exell
Names
Polygala kalaxariensisSchinz [family POLYGALACEAE], in Verb. Bot. Verein. Brand. 29: 52 (1888). — Exell & Mendonça, C.F.A. 1 1: 106 (1937). — E. Petit, F.C.B. 7: 274 (1958). Type from SW. Africa.
Information
Procumbent, perennial herb or shrublet with minutely pubescent or nearly glabrous stems and branches. Leaves 8–15 x 1–3 mm. (often much broader in Angolan specimens), linear-oblong to narrowly oblong, minutely pubescent or nearly glabrous, blunt and mucronate at the apex. Flowers blue, pedicels rather stout up to 6 mm. long, in short, lateral racemes up to 2 cm. long or solitary, with pubescent rhachis and caducous bracts and bracteoles. Posterior sepal 2.5–3 mm. long; wing sepals 6–7 x 3.5–5 mm., greenish, obliquely elliptic or ovate-elliptic; anterior sepals 2.5 mm. long, connate. Upper petals 5 x 4 mm., obcuneate; carina 7 x 3 mm., minutely pubescent on the margin towards the base, crest 2 mm. long. Stamens 6 fertile and 2 staminodes. Capsule 6 x 3.5 mm., elliptic-oblong, minutely pubescent near the margins, margin very narrowly winged. Seeds 3 x 1.6 mm., cylindric, sparsely white-sericeous; caruncle 1.3 mm. long with very small appendages.
Habitat
In upland grasslands on sandy soils
Altitude range
up to 1520 m.
1520
0
inferred only top
Distribution
Zimbabwe C Marandellas, fl. & fr. 7.iv.1948, Corby 60 (BM; SRGH).Zimbabwe W Bulawayo, fl. xii.1897. Rand 15 (BM).Zambia B near Kassassa, 1120 m., fl. & fr. 10.v.1925, Pocock 244 (PRE).
