Family: Euphorbiaceae
Beyeria
Citation:
Miq., Annls Sci. nat. sér. 3, 1:350 (1844).
Derivation: After a Dutch cryptogamist Rudolf Beyer, 1852-1932.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Turpentine bushes.
Description:
Sticky shrubs, monoecious or dioecious; leaves alternate, subsessile, exstipulate, usually narrow, with recurved or revolute margins, often white underneath with a close stellate indumentum.
Flowers small, axillary, pedunculate, bracteate; the males solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3, rarely racemose, the females solitary; calyx in both sexes of 5 rarely 4 ovate concave imbricate segments; petals minute or usually absent (in S.Aust.); stamens numerous, on very short filaments, crowded, on a hemispherical receptacle, without a rudimentary ovary; anther connective broad and entire or minutely notched at the summit (in S.Aust.); anthers with 2 distinct parallel cells, dehiscing outwards longitudinally in 2 valves; female segments thicker and narrower than those in the males, often enlarging after flowering; ovary 3-celled, with 1 ovule in each cell; stigma sessile, broad, entire or shortly 2- or 3-lobed, peltate and flat or more or less conical.
Capsule ovoid, 3-celled, 3-seeded or fewer by abortion, on an erect angular peduncle dilated under the fruit; seeds oblong, smooth, shining, carunculate; embryo narrow-linear, the cotyledons longer but scarcely broader than the radicle.
Distribution:
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About 12 species endemic to Australia.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Leaves glabrous; midrib obscured by resin |
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B. opaca 2. |
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1. Leaves white-tomentose beneath; midrib prominent |
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2. Branchlets with viscid angles and lines of white pubescence between; female flowers on peduncles 1.2-1.5 mm long, carpels 3, stigmas 3; fruits globular, with 3 1-seeded carpels, on peduncles 1.2-3 mm wide at the apex |
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B. lechenaultii 1. |
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2. Branchlets more or less terete, viscid all around, with pubescence, if any, usually obscured; female flowers on peduncles 0-0.6 mm long, carpels 2, stigmas 2; fruits obliquely broad-ovoid, with a 1-seeded carpel and another smaller with an undeveloped ovule, on peduncles 0.8-1 mm wide at the apex |
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B. subtecta 3. |
Author:
Not yet available
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