Family: Polygalaceae
Comesperma
Citation:
.Labill., Nov. Holl. Pl. Sp. 2:21 (1806).
Derivation: Greek komb, hair of the head; sperma, seed; alluding to the tuft of hairs on the seed.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Shrubs or subshrubs, often climbing, rarely spiny, often arising from a woody rootstock; leaves alternate, often reduced to scales or readily deciduous.
Inflorescence a terminal raceme, often short, occasionally an axillary raceme or solitary; bracts caducous; sepals 5, outer 3 free or with the lower 2 overlapping or united; inner sepals or wings large and petal-like; petals 3, or 5 with 2 reduced or vestigial, variously united with the stamens; lowest petal keeled and usually lobed or pouched; stamens 8, united for about half their length; anthers basifixed, 1-celled, opening by a large apical pore; ovary 2-celled, laterally compressed; style usually flattened and curved or bent abruptly below a broad truncate bilobed or bifurcate apex, with the stigma at one side; ovules 1 in each cell, anatropous, pendulous from the top of the central axis.
Fruit a compressed capsule with a narrow marginal wing, loculicidally dehiscent at the margins; seeds pubescent and usually with a coma of many long hairs extending to the base of the elongate capsule; raphe often extending along the adaxial surface and/or expanding into a membranous appendage at the opposite (apical) end.
Distribution:
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About 24 Australian species. Included in Bredemeyera Willd. by St. Hilaire (1829), Fl. Brasil. merid. 2:36-37. See Thompson (1978), Flora of N.S.W. 112:2, for further discussion. (Pedley (1984) Austrobaileya 2:7-14.)
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Outer sepals all free; plants with generally leafless aspect or with elliptic to lanceolate leaves or if leaves oblong then plant twining |
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2. Outer sepals almost as long as the wings; slender erect subshrub to 700 mm tall |
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C. calymega 1. |
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2. Outer sepals much shorter than the wings |
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C. scoparium 3. |
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C. volubile 4. |
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1. Two anterior outer sepals united; small erect subshrub to 350 mm tall; leaves oblong or obovate |
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C. polygaloides 2. |
Author:
Not yet available
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