Family: Haloragaceae
Haloragis
Citation:
Forster & Forster f., Char. Gen. Pl. 61, t. 31 (1775).
Derivation: Greek halos, salt, the sea; rhax, rhagos, a grape berry; the original species grows on beaches and has globular fruits.
Synonymy: Cercodia Banks ex Murray, Comm. Goet. 3:6 (1781); Meionectes R. Br. in Flinders, Voy. Terr. Aust. 550 (1814).
Common name: Raspworts.
Description:
Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs 10-150 cm tall; rootstock a simple tap root or deeply stoloniferous; stems smooth or 4- or 5-ribbed, glabrous or variously pilose with simple hairs; leaves alternate or opposite, terete to ovate or pinnatifid, entire or serrate with falcate teeth, glabrous or pilose.
Inflorescence an indeterminate spike of 3-7-flowered dichasia (rarely some flowers solitary) in the axils of alternate bracts, with lateral inflorescences in the axils of the upper leaves; flowers 4-merous, rarely 1-3-merous, on short pedicels; sepals 2-4, usually smooth; petals 4 rarely 2 or 3, hooded, usually shortly clawed, keeled; stamens twice the number of petals, anthers 4-locular, non-apiculate, oblong; styles 4, rarely 1-3, clavate, stigmas capitate; ovary ovoid to hemispherical, smooth or ribbed, glabrous or pilose, 2-4-locular, (1-locular in H. eyreana) each locule with 1 (rarely 2) pendulous ovules (if 2 then 1 aborts).
Fruit an indehiscent nut, variously ornamented, 2-4-locular, with potentially 1 seed in each locule.
Distribution:
|
28 species, of which 23 are found in Australia, in temperate and eremaean areas only. The extra-Australian species are confined to the South Pacific, including Tuvalu, New Caledonia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Rapa and the Juan Fernandez group. (Orchard (1975) Bull. Auckland Inst. Mus. 10:64-140; Orchard (1986) Nuytsia 5:327-339.) The vernacular name raspwort has been applied inappropriately in the Australian literature even to glabrous soft species.
|
|
|
Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
|
1. vegetative leaves opposite, at least on the lower part of the stem, ovate |
|
H. eichleri 4. |
|
1. Vegetative leaves all alternate (or if opposite at the base then leaves terete or 3-fid to multifid) |
|
|
|
2. Leaves with a petiole at least 5 mm long |
|
|
|
3. Flowers 4-merous; fruits 4-winged or -ribbed |
|
H. odontocarpa 10. |
|
3. Flowers 3-merous; fruits 3-winged |
|
H. gossei 7. |
|
2. Leaves sessile or very shortly petiolate |
|
|
|
4. Ovary and fruit 4-locular |
|
|
|
5. Leaves narrowly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, usually serrate |
|
|
|
|
|
7. Hairs curved, 1- or 2-celled |
|
|
|
8. Leaves green; rootstock a tap root |
|
H. acutangula 1. |
|
8. Leaves glaucous; rootstock a deep stolon |
|
H. glauca 6. |
|
7. Hairs hooked at the tip, 2-4-celled |
|
|
|
9. Fruit ovoid, pear-shaped with the narrow end distally or globular, exocarp warty or rugose, not spongy |
|
H. aspera 2. |
|
9. Fruit globular, exocarp smooth, spongy |
|
H. uncatipila 11. |
|
|
|
10. Leaves green; rootstock a tap root |
|
H. acutangula 1. |
|
10. Leaves glaucous; rootstock a deep stolon |
|
H. glauca 6. |
|
5. Leaves terete, multi fid or 3-fid |
|
|
|
11. Leaves multifid or 3-fid, usually scabrous; hairs hooked at the tip |
|
H. heterophylla 8. |
|
11. Leaves terete, glabrous or very sparsely scabrous; hairs short, thick, curved |
|
H. myriocarpa 9. |
|
4. Ovary and fruit 1- or 2-locular |
|
|
|
12. Fruit 1-locular; terrestrial herb with linear leaves |
|
H. eyreana 5. |
|
12. Fruit 2-1ocular; aquatic or semi-aquatic herb with pinnatifid, multifid or pinnatipartite leaves |
|
H. brownii 3. |
Author:
Not yet available
|