Family: Rubiaceae
Canthium
Citation:
Lam., Encycl. 1:602 (1785).
Derivation: A Latinisation of kanti, the Malabar name for C. parviflorum.
Synonymy: Plectronia L., Mant. 1:6 (1767), nom. rej.
Common name: None
Description:
Perennial woody shrubs rarely taller than 2 m; leaves opposite, usually petiolate, with stipules sheathing the terminal bud and scarcely fused to the petioles.
Inflorescence an axillary thyrse sometimes reduced to a single dichasium with few to many flowers; flowers usually bisexual, 4- or 5-merous; calyx with minute lobes, persistent; corolla tube cylindrical, shorter than the valvate lobes, deciduous; stamens with a tuft of hairs where the filaments are fused to the apex of the corolla tube; anthers with a terminal pointed appendage; ovary inferior, with 2 locules each with 1 ovule; style slender, with a terminal more or less conical stigma with vertical grooves but usually slightly split at the apex to become mitre-shaped, deciduous.
Fruits drupaceous, with 1 or 2 seeds developing.
Distribution:
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A genus of about 200 species of the tropics of the Old World.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Leaf blade lanceolate, ovate to orbicular, 15-50 mm broad |
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2. Leaf blade with an acuminate apex, undulate margins, with tertiary veins scarcely visible |
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C. attenuatum 1. |
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2. Leaf blade with an obtuse to rounded apex, entire or scarcely undulate, with veins of 3rd and 4th order visible at least on the undersurface |
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C. latifolium 2. |
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1. Leaf blade linear, 3-5 mm broad |
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C. lineare 3. |
Author:
Not yet available
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