XEROPHYTA Juss. [family VELLOZIACEAE]

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1975) Author: LYMAN B. SMITH AND EDWARD S. AYENSU
Names
XEROPHYTA Juss. [family VELLOZIACEAE], Gen.: 50 (1789); Lam., Tabl. Encycl. 1: 372 (1792); Bak. in J.B. 13: 231 (1875); Perrier in Fl. Madag. 42, Velloz.: 2 (1950); L.B. Smith & Ayensu in K.B. 29: 184 (1974)
Information
Small to large perennial herbs or shrubs. Leaf-blades deciduous along a regular transverse line or rarely persistent (X. schlechteri (Bak.) N. Menezes). Perianth-tube slightly exceeding the ovary; tepals white, blue, mauve, or yellow. Filaments flattened and almost wholly adnate to the tepals, triangular, sometimes auricled near apex. Stigmas linear, vertical, about the same length or much longer than the naked style-base.
Range
A genus of twenty-nine species, with the type, X. pinifolia Lam., from Madagascar along with two others, one from Arabia, and the remainder from tropical Africa southwards.
Notes
We recognise in K.B. 29: 184 (1974) three sections based on leaf-anatomy. The two sections occurring in E. Africa are defined as follows. Fuller discussion is given in K.B. 23: 315–335 (1969).
XEROPHYTA Juss. [family VELLOZIACEAE]
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