Compilation
Sericocoma zeyheri

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Name

Identification
Sericocoma zeyheri Engl. [family AMARANTHACEAE ] Sericocoma avolans Fenzl [family AMARANTHACEAE ] (stored under name); Trichinium zeyheri Moq. [family AMARANTHACEAE ]
Related name
  • Trichinium zeyheri
  • Sericocoma zeyheri
  • Sericocoma avolans

Flora

Entry for SERICOCOMA avolans Fenzl [family AMARANTHACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Capensis
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Capensis, Vol 5, page 402, (1912) Author: By T. COOKE and C. H. WRIGHT.
Names
SERICOCOMA avolans Fenzl [family AMARANTHACEAE], in Linnæa, xvii. 328;—Moquin in DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 307, partly.
Sericocoma Zeyheri Engl. [family AMARANTHACEAE], in Engl. Jahrb. x. 6, partly.
Sericocoma capensis Moquin [family AMARANTHACEAE], in DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 307.
Trichinium Zeyheri Moquin [family AMARANTHACEAE], in DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 296.
Cyphocarpa Zeyheri Lopr. [family AMARANTHACEAE], inEngl. Jahrb. xxvii. 45.
Eurotia capensis E. Meyer ex Moquin [family CHENOPODIACEAE], in DC. Prodr. xiii. ii. 307.
Information
1–1 3/4 ft. high; stems branched; branches glabrous or puberulous; leaves opposite and alternate, sessile or subsessile, 1 in. long, 1 1/2 lin. broad, linear or linear-oblong, acute, shortly mucronate, glabrous, thick, subfleshy; flowers in cylindric obtuse simple terminal spikes 1–2 1/2 in. long, at first pale yellowish, then ash-coloured; partial inflorescences usually of 1 fertile without infertile flowers; bracteoles hyaline, ovate-anceolate, acute, cuspidately mucronate by the produced midrib; perianth 2 lin. long; sepals subequal or the 2 outer longest, lanceolate, acute, densely woolly; stamens about 1 lin. long; anthers small, 1/8 lin. long, oblong; staminodes 0; ovary 1 lin. long, globosely ovoid, villous; style nearly 1 lin. long; stigma capitate; seed doubled on itself, the folded seed 1 lin. long, 1/2 lin. broad, oblong, compressed, smooth, red. null
Distribution
CENTRAL REGION Calvinia Div.; between Lospers Plaats aud Springbok Kuil River, 2000–3000 ft., Zeyher, 1439! Prince Albert Div.; between the Dwyka River and Zwartbulletje River, Drège! Graaff Reinet Div.; near Graaff Reinet, Bolus. 812!KALAHARI REGION Griqualand West; St. Clair, Douglas, Orpen, 129!
Notes
Much confusion exists regarding Sericocoma Zeyheri (Trichinium Zeyheri, Moquin) and Sericocoma avolans, Fenzl, to both of which species Moquin has referred Zeyher's 1439. In his description of S. avolans, Moquin simply copies Fenzl who says that staminodes are present, which is certainly not the case in Zeyher's 1439 at Kew, while in his description of Trichinium Zeyheri under the same number, Moquin assigns the absence of staminodes as a reason for placing the plant in the genus Trichinium instead of in Sericocoma. Engler based his description of Sericocoma Zeyheri (Bot. Jahrb. x. 6) upon a plant collected at Kimberley in Griqualand West by Marloth, 785, in which the ovary is horned (and therefore a species of Cyphocarpa), and also referred to it Trichinium Zeyheri, Moquin, in an authentic specimen of which at Kew (as well as all the others cited above) the ovary is not horned. Lopriore (Engl. Jahrb. xxvii. 45) makes Cyphocarpa Zeyheri conspecific with Trichinium Zeyheri, Moquin, and therefore accepts the horned ovary described by Engler. I think that Trichinium Zeyheri and Sericocoma avolans should be regarded as conspecific, under the latter name. This will invalidate one of Lopriore's characters of Sericocoma (viz. the presence of staminodes), but according to the Genera Plantarum of Benth. & Hook. f. staminodes in Sericocoma are sometimes absent and are said to be so in S. avolans. (T. C.)

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