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ANTHOSPERMUM L. [family RUBIACEAE]
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, (1976) Author: B. VERDCOURT
Names
ANTHOSPERMUM L. [family RUBIACEAE], Sp. Pl.: 1058 (1753) & Gen. Pl., ed. 5: 479 (1754)
Information
Herbs or small shrubs with glabrous to densely hairy stems. Leaves opposite or verticillate, in whorls of 3(–6), the blades mostly narrow, more rarely ovate or oblong; stipule-sheath adnate to the petioles at base with mostly 1 or less often 2–3 narrow lobes. Flowers mostly small or very small, dioecious, polygamous or hermaphrodite, axillary, sessile or rarely in panicles; bracts minute, 2–3 at base of the ovary. Calyx-tube ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, the limb mostly minute, 4–5-toothed or 2–4-lobed, the lobes sometimes ovate. Corolla in ♂ flowers with tube campanulate, funnel-shaped or cylindrical, lobes 4(–5), linear to elliptic-lanceolate, longer or shorter than the tube, often revolute; stamens exserted, the filaments variously inserted at base or the throat of tube; styles 2, or joined at base, often short in ♂ flowers but exserted in hermaphrodite ones; in ♀ flowers the corolla-tube is often very minute with 2–4 reduced erect lobes; styles 2, or joined at the base, the stigmas long and feathery hairy; in certain species they are sometimes very long in certain specimens and form a tangled skein falling over the foliage. Ovary 2-locular, each locule containing a single erect ovule. Fruit separating septicidally into 2 cocci, each compressed ellipsoid, ventrally plane or grooved, dorsally convex, indehiscent or sometimes dehiscing ventrally. Seeds conforming in shape to the cocci.
Range
A genus of about 40 species, the majority confined to South Africa but with several species in East and South-central Africa and also a few in Madagascar; one reaches Arabia. There has clearly been a northward migration from South Africa.
Notes
The species are difficult and the following account is recognized to be rather unsatisfactory.
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, (1976) Author: B. VERDCOURT
Names
ANTHOSPERMUM L. [family RUBIACEAE], Sp. Pl.: 1058 (1753) & Gen. Pl., ed. 5: 479 (1754)
Information
Herbs or small shrubs with glabrous to densely hairy stems. Leaves opposite or verticillate, in whorls of 3(–6), the blades mostly narrow, more rarely ovate or oblong; stipule-sheath adnate to the petioles at base with mostly 1 or less often 2–3 narrow lobes. Flowers mostly small or very small, dioecious, polygamous or hermaphrodite, axillary, sessile or rarely in panicles; bracts minute, 2–3 at base of the ovary. Calyx-tube ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, the limb mostly minute, 4–5-toothed or 2–4-lobed, the lobes sometimes ovate. Corolla in ♂ flowers with tube campanulate, funnel-shaped or cylindrical, lobes 4(–5), linear to elliptic-lanceolate, longer or shorter than the tube, often revolute; stamens exserted, the filaments variously inserted at base or the throat of tube; styles 2, or joined at base, often short in ♂ flowers but exserted in hermaphrodite ones; in ♀ flowers the corolla-tube is often very minute with 2–4 reduced erect lobes; styles 2, or joined at the base, the stigmas long and feathery hairy; in certain species they are sometimes very long in certain specimens and form a tangled skein falling over the foliage. Ovary 2-locular, each locule containing a single erect ovule. Fruit separating septicidally into 2 cocci, each compressed ellipsoid, ventrally plane or grooved, dorsally convex, indehiscent or sometimes dehiscing ventrally. Seeds conforming in shape to the cocci.
Range
A genus of about 40 species, the majority confined to South Africa but with several species in East and South-central Africa and also a few in Madagascar; one reaches Arabia. There has clearly been a northward migration from South Africa.
Notes
The species are difficult and the following account is recognized to be rather unsatisfactory.
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, (1976) Author: B. VERDCOURT
Names
ANTHOSPERMUM L. [family RUBIACEAE], Sp. Pl.: 1058 (1753) & Gen. Pl., ed. 5: 479 (1754)
Information
Herbs or small shrubs with glabrous to densely hairy stems. Leaves opposite or verticillate, in whorls of 3(–6), the blades mostly narrow, more rarely ovate or oblong; stipule-sheath adnate to the petioles at base with mostly 1 or less often 2–3 narrow lobes. Flowers mostly small or very small, dioecious, polygamous or hermaphrodite, axillary, sessile or rarely in panicles; bracts minute, 2–3 at base of the ovary. Calyx-tube ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, the limb mostly minute, 4–5-toothed or 2–4-lobed, the lobes sometimes ovate. Corolla in ♂ flowers with tube campanulate, funnel-shaped or cylindrical, lobes 4(–5), linear to elliptic-lanceolate, longer or shorter than the tube, often revolute; stamens exserted, the filaments variously inserted at base or the throat of tube; styles 2, or joined at base, often short in ♂ flowers but exserted in hermaphrodite ones; in ♀ flowers the corolla-tube is often very minute with 2–4 reduced erect lobes; styles 2, or joined at the base, the stigmas long and feathery hairy; in certain species they are sometimes very long in certain specimens and form a tangled skein falling over the foliage. Ovary 2-locular, each locule containing a single erect ovule. Fruit separating septicidally into 2 cocci, each compressed ellipsoid, ventrally plane or grooved, dorsally convex, indehiscent or sometimes dehiscing ventrally. Seeds conforming in shape to the cocci.
Range
A genus of about 40 species, the majority confined to South Africa but with several species in East and South-central Africa and also a few in Madagascar; one reaches Arabia. There has clearly been a northward migration from South Africa.
Notes
The species are difficult and the following account is recognized to be rather unsatisfactory.
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