About
Contact
Links
Electronic Flora of South Australia
Electronic Flora of South Australia
Census of SA Plants, Algae & Fungi
Identification tools
 

Electronic Flora of South Australia family Fact Sheet

Apocynaceae

Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Small trees, shrubs or herbs, usually glabrous; latex usually milky and poisonous; leaves simple, entire, opposite and decussate or rarely alternate, usually exstipulate.

Flowers solitary or cymose, hermaphrodite, symmetrical; sepals 5, fused; petals 5, fused, often showy, twisted in the bud; stamens 5, inserted on the tube, alternating with the perianth lobes; anthers introrse, closely surrounding the stigma and often fused to the style; ovary superior; carpels 2, usually separate but joined by the single style; ovules 2 or more in each cell.

Fruit a drupe or follicle.

Distribution:  About 180 genera and 1,500 species, almost cosmopolitan but mainly in warm areas; 14 genera and about 65 species in Australia.

Biology: No text

Uses: Cultivated species include Nerium oleander (oleander), Mandevilla laxa and Plumeria (frangipani).

Key to Genera:
1. Shrubs erect to 4 m high; flowers in cymes or umbels, white to pinkish or orange
 
2. Flowers 2.5-4.5 cm long; fruit a follicle
NERIUM 3.
2. Flower to 1.5 cm long; fruit a drupe
 
3. Leaves 10-20 mm wide; corolla orange
ALYXIA 1.
3. Leaves 3-6 mm wide; corolla white to pinkish
CARISSA 2.
1. Herbs with creeping stems; flowers usually solitary, blue
VINCA 4.

Author: Prepared by R. D. Pearce


Disclaimer Copyright Disclaimer Copyright Email Contact:
State Herbarium of South Australia
Government of South Australia Government of South Australia Government of South Australia Department for Environment and Water