Family: Crassulaceae
Crassula
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 282 (1753).
Derivation: Diminutive of Latin crassus, thick; alluding to the fleshy leaves and branches.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Crassulas.
Description:
Annual herbs, delicate aquatics or rarely soft-wooded perennial shrublets; leaves opposite, connate at the base; inflorescence usually a thyrse with several, rarely only 1 dichasium, or reduced to a monochasium.
Peduncle distinct only in C. ciliata and C. tetragona while bracts of other species are large and leaf-like; flowers 3-5-merous, usually partly hidden by leaf-like bracts, sometimes situated in the axil of one pair of leaf-like bracts in a monochasium; sepals shortly connate at the base, often unequally long, fleshy; petals scarcely connate, with lobes spreading or tubular, with apices more or less recurved; stamens in 1 whorl, glabrous.
Carpels free, each with 1 to several ovules; seeds with usually indistinct vertical ridges or tubercles arranged in vertical lines.
Distribution:
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About 170 species mainly in temperate regions of the world and with more than 80% of the species occurring in southern Africa. Of the 15 species found in Australia, 12 have been recorded from S.Aust. (Toelken (1981) J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 3:57-90).
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Flowers borne well above leaves (bracts, if present, scale-like or with long internodes between pairs) |
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2. Leaves petiolate; blade 15-40 mm broad |
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C. multicava 8. |
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2. Leaves sessile, 3-8 mm broad |
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3. Leaves dorsiventrally flattened, with marginal cilia |
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C. ciliata 2. |
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3. Leaves terete or almost so, glabrous |
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C. tetragona subsp. robusta 13. |
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1. Flowers borne in the axils of leaf-like bracts; annuals or, if perennials, the leaves shorter than 12 mm |
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4. Petals papillose (visible without a lens); flowers terminal on branches |
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C. glomerata 6. |
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4. Petals smooth; flowers along branches |
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5. Flowers usually 3 from the axil of 1 leaf per node |
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6. Carpels each with 1 ovule |
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C. natans var. minus 9. |
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6. Carpels each with 2-16 ovules |
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7. Style less than one-quarter of the length of the ovary and abruptly joining the ovary; leaves rarely to 1 mm broad. C. peduncularis 11 |
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7. Style about half as long as and gradually tapering into the ovary; leaves usually 1.5-3 mm broad |
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C. helmsii 7. |
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5. Flowers usually 3-18 in the axils of both leaves at a node |
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8. Flowers predominantly 3- or 4-merous |
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C. alata var. alata 1. |
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10. Part-inflorescences stalked |
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C. decumbens subsp. decumbens 4. |
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10. Part-inflorescences sessile or almost so |
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11. Basal branches carnose, articulated with swollen nodes; perennials |
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C. sieberana subsp. sieberana 12a. |
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11. Basal branches wiry-woody, not articulated; annuals C. sieberana subsp. tetramera 12b |
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8. Flower predominantly 5-merous |
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12. Flowers sessile or almost so |
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13. Follicles dehiscing by an apical pore and basal circumscissal split |
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C. exserta 5. |
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13. Follicles dehiscing only by a basal cimumscissal split |
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14. Follicles almost elliptic in profile, smooth or rarely with bulging epidermis cells |
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C. colorata var. colorata 3a. |
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14. Follicles oblanceolate to almost spathulate in profile, with clusters of tubercles below the middle |
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C. colorata var. acuminata 3b. |
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12. Flowers with pedicels at least 1.5 mm long |
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15. Carpels each with 1 or 2 ovules |
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C. exserta 5. |
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15. Carpels each with 8-20 ovules |
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16. Calyx lobes papillose; peduncles absent |
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C. pedicellosa 10. |
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16. Calyx lobes smooth or with few papillae towards the apex; peduncle 3-7 mm long |
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C. decumbens var. decumbens 4. |
Author:
Not yet available
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