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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Nyctaginaceae
Boerhavia

Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 3 (1753).

Derivation: After Hermann Boerhaave, 1668-1738, a professor of medicine, botany and chemistry at the University of Leiden.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Tar-vine, tah-vine, geotcho.

Description:
Annual or perennial herbs, prostrate, erect or climbing, glabrous or hairy; leaves opposite, petiolate.

Flowers small, in few-flowered umbels on simple or branched axillary peduncles; petaloid part of the perianth 5-lobed, about as long as the lower part; stamens 2-4, attached near the base of the perianth; ovary erect and stipitate within the lower part of the perianth; style simple, with a dilated stigma; anthocarp 5-ribbed, pyriform.

Distribution:  20 species in warm parts of the world; 8 in Australia.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: The following treatment is largely from Meikle & Hewson (1984) Fl. Aust. 4:6-13. B. diffusa L., to which all S.Aust. species were previously referred, does not occur in Australia.

Key to Species:
1. Stems densely glandular-hairy with hairs more than 0.5 mm long.
B. coccinea 1.
1. Stems subglabrous or sparsely hairy with hairs less than 0.5 mm long
 
2. Inflorescence usually compound; stamens 2-4; fruits glandular- hairy
B. dominii 2.
2. Inflorescence usually simple; stamen 1; fruits glabrous or sparsely glandular-hairy especially on the ribs
B. schomburgkiana 3.

Author: Not yet available


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