- Family: Pedaliaceae R.Br.
Harpagophytum DC. ex Meisn.
This genus is accepted, and is native to Africa..
Descriptions
According to Flora Zambesiaca
[FZ]Pedaliaceae, H. D. Ihlenfeldt. Flora Zambesiaca 8:3. 1988
- Habit
- Perennial herb with several prostrate annual stems from a succulent tuberous taproot, additional tubers often present on lateral roots; whole plant glabrous or subglabrous and covered with mucilage-glands.
- Leaves
- Leaves opposite, subsucculent, petiolate, very variable in shape and often polymorphic.
- Flowers
- Flowers solitary, shortly pedicelled, erect; corolla tube nearly cylindrical, constricted at the base; limb spreading; lobes of limb subequal, circular to oblate; corolla tube light purple, pink, yellow or white outside, usually more or less yellow inside; limb purple or mauve, occasionally yellow.
- Stamens
- Stamens 4, included, inserted near the base of the corolla tube; thecae divergent; staminodium present, with apical gland.
- Ovary
- Ovary bilocular; false septa absent.
- Fruits
- Fruit a woody capsule, tardily loculicidally imperfectly dehiscent, laterally compressed, with two obtuse protuberances on each face, armed with two rows of curved arms along the edges each bearing recurved spines or the edges with two rigid wings bearing recurved spines; mature fruit easily detachable (forming a “trample burr”).
- Seeds
- Seeds numerous, spreading, in 2 or 4 rows in each loculus, narrowly obovate in outline; testa irregularly reticulate, black.
Images
Distribution
Native to:
Angola, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Accepted Species
Synonyms
Other Data
Harpagophytum DC. ex Meisn. appears in other Kew resources:
Bibliography
First published in Pl. Vasc. Gen.: 298 (1840)
Literature
Flora Zambesiaca
- Ihlenf. & Hartm. in Mitt. Staatsinst. Allg. Bot. Hamburg 13: 15–69 (1970).
- Pl. Vasc. Gen. 1: 298 and 2: 206 (1840)
Sources
Art and Illustrations in Digifolia
Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew
Flora Zambesiaca
Flora Zambesiaca
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
Kew Backbone Distributions
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0