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TAXILLUS Tiegh. [family LORANTHACEAE]
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
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, (1999) Author: POLHILL & D. WIENS
Names
TAXILLUS Tiegh. [family LORANTHACEAE], in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 42: 256 (1895); Polh. & Wiens, Mistletoes Afr.: 219 (1998)
Information
Shrubs, rarely exceeding 1 m. in height, with haustoria bearing surface runners; hairs stellate and dendritic, sometimes with other simple ones; twigs terete to angular. Leaves alternate to opposite, petiolate; lateral nerves pinnate, principally 3–5 from the base, or obscure. Flowers axillary or terminal on short shoots in umbels or clusters, sometimes sessile, occasionally solitary; bract single, unilateral or cupular, entire or toothed. Corolla 4–5-merous, often hairy, opening spontaneously or usually explosively, zygomorphic, with a V-split on one side, generally yellow or red and green; buds often curved, somewhat inflated medially, often narrowed below the slightly ellipsoid to clavate head, sometimes developing vents below the head, often with a gland on one side; lobes shorter than tube, erect (in Africa) or reflexed, linear to spathulate. Stamens attached near the base of the corolla-lobes, erect; filaments short, straight; anthers 4-thecous, sometimes locellate, with a very small connective-appendage. Style slender, terete to angular; stigma small. Berry usually reddish, ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, smooth or verruculose, with a persistent calyx.
Range
About 35 species in tropical Asia, from India and Sri Lanka to China, Japan, Philippines and Borneo, with one species on the Kenya coast.
Notes
Taxillus wiensii was discovered only in 1972 and despite several visits to the type locality in the Sokoke Forest of coastal Kenya it has never been found flowering more than sporadically. The general appearance is certainly very similar to species of Taxillus seen live in Sri Lanka (Wiens in Dassan., Rev. Handb. Fl. Ceylon 6: 138 (1988)), but the flowers seem less specialised than those of the Asiatic species. The flowers may open spontaneously or by some manipulation of the head in bud by birds. They open with a short V-slit, the style springing forward, the filaments short and erect.
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
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, (1999) Author: POLHILL & D. WIENS
Names
TAXILLUS Tiegh. [family LORANTHACEAE], in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 42: 256 (1895); Polh. & Wiens, Mistletoes Afr.: 219 (1998)
Information
Shrubs, rarely exceeding 1 m. in height, with haustoria bearing surface runners; hairs stellate and dendritic, sometimes with other simple ones; twigs terete to angular. Leaves alternate to opposite, petiolate; lateral nerves pinnate, principally 3–5 from the base, or obscure. Flowers axillary or terminal on short shoots in umbels or clusters, sometimes sessile, occasionally solitary; bract single, unilateral or cupular, entire or toothed. Corolla 4–5-merous, often hairy, opening spontaneously or usually explosively, zygomorphic, with a V-split on one side, generally yellow or red and green; buds often curved, somewhat inflated medially, often narrowed below the slightly ellipsoid to clavate head, sometimes developing vents below the head, often with a gland on one side; lobes shorter than tube, erect (in Africa) or reflexed, linear to spathulate. Stamens attached near the base of the corolla-lobes, erect; filaments short, straight; anthers 4-thecous, sometimes locellate, with a very small connective-appendage. Style slender, terete to angular; stigma small. Berry usually reddish, ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, smooth or verruculose, with a persistent calyx.
Range
About 35 species in tropical Asia, from India and Sri Lanka to China, Japan, Philippines and Borneo, with one species on the Kenya coast.
Notes
Taxillus wiensii was discovered only in 1972 and despite several visits to the type locality in the Sokoke Forest of coastal Kenya it has never been found flowering more than sporadically. The general appearance is certainly very similar to species of Taxillus seen live in Sri Lanka (Wiens in Dassan., Rev. Handb. Fl. Ceylon 6: 138 (1988)), but the flowers seem less specialised than those of the Asiatic species. The flowers may open spontaneously or by some manipulation of the head in bud by birds. They open with a short V-slit, the style springing forward, the filaments short and erect.
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
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, (1999) Author: POLHILL & D. WIENS
Names
TAXILLUS Tiegh. [family LORANTHACEAE], in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 42: 256 (1895); Polh. & Wiens, Mistletoes Afr.: 219 (1998)
Information
Shrubs, rarely exceeding 1 m. in height, with haustoria bearing surface runners; hairs stellate and dendritic, sometimes with other simple ones; twigs terete to angular. Leaves alternate to opposite, petiolate; lateral nerves pinnate, principally 3–5 from the base, or obscure. Flowers axillary or terminal on short shoots in umbels or clusters, sometimes sessile, occasionally solitary; bract single, unilateral or cupular, entire or toothed. Corolla 4–5-merous, often hairy, opening spontaneously or usually explosively, zygomorphic, with a V-split on one side, generally yellow or red and green; buds often curved, somewhat inflated medially, often narrowed below the slightly ellipsoid to clavate head, sometimes developing vents below the head, often with a gland on one side; lobes shorter than tube, erect (in Africa) or reflexed, linear to spathulate. Stamens attached near the base of the corolla-lobes, erect; filaments short, straight; anthers 4-thecous, sometimes locellate, with a very small connective-appendage. Style slender, terete to angular; stigma small. Berry usually reddish, ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, smooth or verruculose, with a persistent calyx.
Range
About 35 species in tropical Asia, from India and Sri Lanka to China, Japan, Philippines and Borneo, with one species on the Kenya coast.
Notes
Taxillus wiensii was discovered only in 1972 and despite several visits to the type locality in the Sokoke Forest of coastal Kenya it has never been found flowering more than sporadically. The general appearance is certainly very similar to species of Taxillus seen live in Sri Lanka (Wiens in Dassan., Rev. Handb. Fl. Ceylon 6: 138 (1988)), but the flowers seem less specialised than those of the Asiatic species. The flowers may open spontaneously or by some manipulation of the head in bud by birds. They open with a short V-slit, the style springing forward, the filaments short and erect.
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