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Allophylus L. [family SAPINDACEAE]
Date Updated: 26 July 2007
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 2, Part 2, page 494, (1966) Author: A. W. Exell
Names
Allophylus L. [family SAPINDACEAE], Sp. Pl. 1: 348 (1753); Gen. Pl. ed. 5: 164 (1754).
Information
Trees or shrubs. Leaves (1) 3-foliolate, usually minutely glandular beneath. Inflorescence a racemoid or paniculate thyrse. Flowers monoecious (? rarely polygamo-dioecious) usually male and female in the same inflorescence (the female usually apparently hermaphrodite but the anthers sterile), small, greenish, white or yellowish. Sepals 4, the 2 outer ones larger, imbricate. Petals 4, clavate or spathulate with an emarginate apex, each with a usually (always in our species) hairy scale. Disk unilateral, usually 4-lobed. Stamens 8 (rarely fewer), slightly connate at the base, somewhat shorter in the female flowers (staminodes). Ovary deeply 2–3-lobed; loculi 1-ovulate; style 2–3-fid. Fruit drupaceous, of 2–3 cocci or frequently of 1 coccus by abortion. Seeds obovoid, without arillodes, usually (always in our species) glabrous.
Notes
As far as my dissections show, the functionally female flowers usually develop first and for this reason the length given for the filaments in the male flowers may sometimes be too short owing to their immaturity. The glomerule or cymule usually (or at least often) consists of one female flower and several male ones.The taxonomy of the species of this genus is unusually difficult as nearly all the species appear to hybridize (though I know of no experimental evidence of this), the leaflets are very variable in shape and indumentum and the flowers provide few characters of value in classification. It is difficult to avoid using the character of “branched” or “unbranched” inflorescences in the key and in good specimens this is usually not difficult to determine; but poor or depauperated specimens, probably normally “branched”, may not show the character, while species with normally “unbranched” inflorescences may occasionally show a small branch. The inflorescences are never truly simple as the flowers are grouped in small subsessile glomerules or shortly pedunculate cymules along the axis or axes and this is technically branching.The classification here proposed is still far from satisfactory but only experimental work can disentangle the taxonomy. The fruits may well provide useful characters but so relatively few fruiting specimens have been collected that there is little point in using fruit-characters in the key.
Date Updated: 26 July 2007
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 2, Part 2, page 494, (1966) Author: A. W. Exell
Names
Allophylus L. [family SAPINDACEAE], Sp. Pl. 1: 348 (1753); Gen. Pl. ed. 5: 164 (1754).
Information
Trees or shrubs. Leaves (1) 3-foliolate, usually minutely glandular beneath. Inflorescence a racemoid or paniculate thyrse. Flowers monoecious (? rarely polygamo-dioecious) usually male and female in the same inflorescence (the female usually apparently hermaphrodite but the anthers sterile), small, greenish, white or yellowish. Sepals 4, the 2 outer ones larger, imbricate. Petals 4, clavate or spathulate with an emarginate apex, each with a usually (always in our species) hairy scale. Disk unilateral, usually 4-lobed. Stamens 8 (rarely fewer), slightly connate at the base, somewhat shorter in the female flowers (staminodes). Ovary deeply 2–3-lobed; loculi 1-ovulate; style 2–3-fid. Fruit drupaceous, of 2–3 cocci or frequently of 1 coccus by abortion. Seeds obovoid, without arillodes, usually (always in our species) glabrous.
Notes
As far as my dissections show, the functionally female flowers usually develop first and for this reason the length given for the filaments in the male flowers may sometimes be too short owing to their immaturity. The glomerule or cymule usually (or at least often) consists of one female flower and several male ones.The taxonomy of the species of this genus is unusually difficult as nearly all the species appear to hybridize (though I know of no experimental evidence of this), the leaflets are very variable in shape and indumentum and the flowers provide few characters of value in classification. It is difficult to avoid using the character of “branched” or “unbranched” inflorescences in the key and in good specimens this is usually not difficult to determine; but poor or depauperated specimens, probably normally “branched”, may not show the character, while species with normally “unbranched” inflorescences may occasionally show a small branch. The inflorescences are never truly simple as the flowers are grouped in small subsessile glomerules or shortly pedunculate cymules along the axis or axes and this is technically branching.The classification here proposed is still far from satisfactory but only experimental work can disentangle the taxonomy. The fruits may well provide useful characters but so relatively few fruiting specimens have been collected that there is little point in using fruit-characters in the key.
Date Updated: 26 July 2007
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 2, Part 2, page 494, (1966) Author: A. W. Exell
Names
Allophylus L. [family SAPINDACEAE], Sp. Pl. 1: 348 (1753); Gen. Pl. ed. 5: 164 (1754).
Information
Trees or shrubs. Leaves (1) 3-foliolate, usually minutely glandular beneath. Inflorescence a racemoid or paniculate thyrse. Flowers monoecious (? rarely polygamo-dioecious) usually male and female in the same inflorescence (the female usually apparently hermaphrodite but the anthers sterile), small, greenish, white or yellowish. Sepals 4, the 2 outer ones larger, imbricate. Petals 4, clavate or spathulate with an emarginate apex, each with a usually (always in our species) hairy scale. Disk unilateral, usually 4-lobed. Stamens 8 (rarely fewer), slightly connate at the base, somewhat shorter in the female flowers (staminodes). Ovary deeply 2–3-lobed; loculi 1-ovulate; style 2–3-fid. Fruit drupaceous, of 2–3 cocci or frequently of 1 coccus by abortion. Seeds obovoid, without arillodes, usually (always in our species) glabrous.
Notes
As far as my dissections show, the functionally female flowers usually develop first and for this reason the length given for the filaments in the male flowers may sometimes be too short owing to their immaturity. The glomerule or cymule usually (or at least often) consists of one female flower and several male ones.The taxonomy of the species of this genus is unusually difficult as nearly all the species appear to hybridize (though I know of no experimental evidence of this), the leaflets are very variable in shape and indumentum and the flowers provide few characters of value in classification. It is difficult to avoid using the character of “branched” or “unbranched” inflorescences in the key and in good specimens this is usually not difficult to determine; but poor or depauperated specimens, probably normally “branched”, may not show the character, while species with normally “unbranched” inflorescences may occasionally show a small branch. The inflorescences are never truly simple as the flowers are grouped in small subsessile glomerules or shortly pedunculate cymules along the axis or axes and this is technically branching.The classification here proposed is still far from satisfactory but only experimental work can disentangle the taxonomy. The fruits may well provide useful characters but so relatively few fruiting specimens have been collected that there is little point in using fruit-characters in the key.
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