Aizoaceae
Alternative names: Not Applicable
Description:
Herbs or shrubs; leaves alternate or opposite, entire, sometimes fleshy; stipules present or 0.
Flowers cymose, terminal, axillary or leaf-opposed, with a herbaceous or scarious 4- or 5-lobed or 4- or 5-partite perianth, bisexual, regular; petals strictly 0 but petal-like staminodes sometimes present; stamens 4 or 5 to numerous, the outer sometimes forming petaloid staminodes; ovary superior or inferior, with 2-5 or more cells, rarely reduced to a single carpel; ovules anatropous or campylotropous, 1 or more in each cell; placentas usually axile; styles as many as cells and usually stigmatic on the inner side from the base upwards.
Fruit a capsule, sometimes circumsciss, rarely fleshy; seed usually compressed and crustaceous, with the embryo curved round the endosperm.
Distribution:
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About 130 genera and 1,200 species or more; nearly 20 genera in Australia, including several naturalised genera which were introduced as garden plants, such as Lampranthus and Mesembryanthemum spp. (A. Prescott & J. Venning (1984) Fl. Aust. 4:19-62).
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Biology:
No text
Key to Genera:
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1. Leaves trigonous; fruits fleshy and indehiscent |
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2. Styles 6-11; fruit 6-1 l-celled |
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CARPOBROTUS 2. |
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2. Styles 4 or 5; fruit 4- or 5-celled |
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SARCOZONA 14. |
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1. Leaves flat to terete, if trigonous then fruits dry and dehiscent |
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3. Petaloid staminodes present |
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4. Leaves strongly flattened and petiolate, if subterete then petaloid staminodes white and placentas axile |
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5. Papillae absent; woody perennial |
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PSILOCAULON 12. |
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5. Papillae numerous on young parts; herbaceous or fleshy and usually annual or biennial |
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6. Petaloid staminodes white; uppermost leaves usually alternate |
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MESEMBRYANTHEMUM 9. |
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6. Petaloid staminodes yellow or purple; leaves all opposite |
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APTENIA 1. |
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MICROPTERUM 10. |
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4. Leaves terete or trigonous; flowers almost always distinctly pedunculate; placentas parietal |
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8. Flowers in branched inflorescences |
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RUSCHIA 13. |
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9. Petaloid staminodes pink; plants prostrate |
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10. Perianth lobes c. 3 mm long |
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DROSANTHEMUM 4. |
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10. Perianth lobes 12-20 mm long |
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DISPHYMA 3. |
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9. Petaloid staminodes yellow-orange; plants erect shrubs |
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LAMPRANTHUS 8. |
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11. Fruit a capsule dehiscing by valves which open when wet |
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GUNNIOPSIS 7. |
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11. Fruit dry or succulent, indehiscent or dehiscent by longitudinal slits or circumsciss |
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13. Perianth c. 2 mm long; styles and ovary cells 2 |
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ZALEYA 17. |
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13. Perianth c. 4-7 mm long; styles and ovary cells 1 |
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TRIANTHEMA 16. |
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12. Leaves basal, alternate, fascicled or whorled |
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14. Fruit indehiscent; ovary half-inferior |
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TETRAGONIA 15. |
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14. Fruit dehiscent; ovary superior |
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15. Ovules and seeds 1 per cell; leaf apices usually recurved |
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GALENIA 5. |
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15. Ovules and seeds several per cell; leaf apices not recurved |
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16. Leaves linear; flowers on capillary peduncles |
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MOLLUGO 11. |
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16. Leaves oblong or oblanceolate to orbicular; flowers shortly pedunculate |
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GLINUS 6. |
Author:
Prepared by J. P. Jessop
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