Family: Rhamnaceae
Cryptandra
Citation:
Smith Trans. Linn. Soc. 4:217 (1798).
Derivation: Greek kryptos, hidden; aner, andros, a man; the anthers are hidden in the hood-shaped petals.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Small shrubs, hairy; leaves usually very small, stipules persistent.
Flowers small, whitish, usually with persistent brown bracts at the base, separate or crowded into small heads usually without subtending floral leaves; sepals 5, persistent together with the floral tube; petals 5, hood-shaped, enclosing the anthers, both inserted at the top of the floral tube; disk not or rarely conspicuous; floral tube more or less adnate to the ovary and extended well beyond it; ovary partly or quite inferior, 3-celled, summit hairy; style minutely 3-lobed.
Capsule surmounted by persistent sepals and floral tube, separating into 3 (or fewer) coriaceous fruitlets keeled on the inner suture; seed ovoid, dorsally compressed, with a crustaceous testa; funicle dilated into a cup-shaped aril at the base of the seed.
Distribution:
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A genus of about 40 Australian species; in the south-west province of and southern eremaean W.Aust., spreading east and north to Tas. and south-eastern Qld. Cryptandras.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Disk prominent; leaves 10-15 mm long |
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C. waterhousii 6. |
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1. Disk inconspicuous; leaves less than 10 mm long |
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2. Flowers sessile in dense heads with floral leaves |
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3. Floral leaves broad, more or less orbicular, white; stem leaves obovate |
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C. leucophracta 3. |
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3. Floral leaves terete, similar to stem leaves |
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C. hispidula 2. |
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2. Flowers in loose heads or short spikes or racemes, not dense heads, without floral leaves |
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4. Flowers hoary with a short tomentum; branchlets seldom spiny |
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C. tomentosa 5. |
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4. Flowers silky with mostly simple hairs; branchlets spiny or almost so |
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5. Brown bracts covering only the base of the floral tube |
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C. amara 1. |
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5. Brown bracts covering the whole floral tube |
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C. propinqua 4. |
Author:
Not yet available
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