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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Rosaceae
Acaena

Citation: Mutis ex L., Mant. Alt. 145 (1771).

Derivation: Greek akaina, a thorn; alluding to the prickles on the fruit.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Sheeps burrs.

Description:
Perennial herbs with imparipinnate leaves and adnate stipules.

Flowers in spikes or heads; sepals usually 4 or 5, valvate, persistent; petals 0; stamens 2-10; carpels 1, rarely 2, each with a terminal style dilated into an oblique fringed stigma and 1 pendulous ovule.

Fruit a 1-seeded coriaceous achene firmly enclosed in the hollow hardened receptacle, which is almost closed at the summit and is furnished with prickles or awns barbed with reflexed hairs.

Distribution:  About 100 species mainly in the Southern Hemisphere. (Keys and descriptions are based on A. E. Orchard (1969), Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 93:91-109.)

Biology: No text

Key to Species:
1. Flowers and fruits all in a globular head
A. novae-zelandiae 4.
1. Flowers and fruits in an interrupted spike or mostly in a head but with 3 or 4 on the stem below
 
2. Fruits mostly in a head but with 3 or 4 on the stem below
A. X anserovina 2.
2. Fruits in interrupted spikes
 
3. Leaflets with hairs confined to the major veins and/or midrib on the lower surface
A. echinata 3.
3. Leaflets densely and evenly appressed pilose on the lower surface
 
4. Spines of the fruit more or less equal
A. agnipila 1.
4. Spines of the fruit unequal, 3-6 longer than the rest
A. ovina 5.

Author: Not yet available


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