Family: Solanaceae
Nicandra
Citation:
Adans., Fam. 2:219 (1763).
Derivation: After Nicander, a poet of Colophon, who wrote about plants c. 100 BC.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Annual herb with glabrous stems; leaves alternate, petiolate, very sparsely pubescent; inflorescence pseudo-axillary or rarely interfoliar.
Flowers solitary, pedicellate; pedicel puberulent; calyx usually glabrous; sepals 5, mutually appressed along their margins to form vertical wings, and fused along their margins for up to half their length from 'basal tips'; corolla 5-lobed, broadly campanulate, pale-blue to mauve on the limb and upper tube, whitish on the lower part of the tube with a blue spot near the base of each lobe; stamens 5, included, inserted near the base of the corolla tube; filaments densely pubescent on their dilated bases; anthers yellow, 2-locular, dorsifixed, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary 3-5-celled; stigma with 3-5 stigmatic areas.
Fruit a pale yellowish almost dry berry, the outer wall chartaceous (splitting irregularly at the base when ripe), enclosed in the accrescent chartaceous calyx; seeds brown, numerous.
Distribution:
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Monotypic; native to Peru, now widely dispersed in tropical and temperate areas. (P. Horton (1979) Taxonomic account of Nicandra (Solanaceae) in Australia, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 1:351-356.)
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Prepared by P. Horton
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