Family: Rubiaceae
Sherardia
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 102 (1753).
Derivation: After William Sherard, 1659-1728, English botanist and-antiquarian who left a bequest to found a chair of botany at Oxford.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Annual herbs with quadrangular stems; leaves and stipules of similar size and in whorls of varying numbers; inflorescence a dichasium of sessile flowers surrounded by an involucre of 'leaves' connate up to one-third of their length, terminal or rarely terminal on short axillary branches.
Flowers bisexual, usually 4-merous; calyx with 6 lobes, i.e. 3 persistent on each mericarp; corolla funnel-shaped, with a tube c. 4 mm long and longer than the lobes; stamens with filaments fused to much of the corolla tube; anthers without terminal appendages; ovary inferior, with 2 locules each with 1 ovule, with the style 2-lobed and ending in a capitate stigma.
Fruit dry, 2-lobed but usually not breaking freely into 2 mericarps.
Distribution:
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1 species widely distributed in Europe and to western Asia but now naturalised in many parts of the world
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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