Family: Elatinaceae
Bergia
Citation:
L., Mant. Alt. 152 (1771).
Derivation: After Dr Petter Jonas Bergius, 1730-90, Swedish physician and botanist.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Erect to prostrate annual or perennial herbs, sometimes slightly woody, with hairs on the younger parts of the stems; leaves opposite, usually serrulate, with often glandular or sometimes hair-like teeth, mostly attenuate to a short petiole; stipules herbaceous with membranous margins or more or less membranous throughout, usually with a midrib, fimbriate, often connate and/or adnate to the petioles at the base, persistent.
Flowers solitary, paired or in dense fascicles, usually with fimbriate bracts or bracteoles; sepals 3-5, acute to attenuate, more or less free, conspicuous, usually herbaceous with membranous margins, sometimes ciliate or more or less fimbriate, concave, more or less keeled, sometimes winged dorsally; petals as many as the sepals, white to pink, persistent; stamens 3-10; ovary cells as many as or fewer than the petals, gradually narrowing into the styles; capsules subglobose, the walls subcrustaceous, dehiscing opposite the petals when equal to them in number.
Seeds cylindrical, more or less sausage-shaped, smooth to conspicuously pitted.
Distribution:
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About 25 species mainly in warmer parts of the world; 5 species in Australia.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Stamens 3-5; flowers in dense fascicles |
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2. Flowers usually 5-merous; petals acute; seeds faintly marked or smooth, c. 0.3 mm long |
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B. ammannioides 1. |
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2. Flowers 3- or 4-merous; petals obtuse; seeds distinctly pitted, c. 0.4 mm long |
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B. trimera 4. |
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1. Stamens 10; flowers solitary |
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3. Annuals; sepals c. 1.5 mm long |
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B. aff.pedicellaris 2. |
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3. Perennials: sepals 3.5-4 mm long |
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B. perennis 3. |
Author:
Not yet available
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