Family: Zygophyllaceae
Zygophyllum prismatothecum
Citation:
F. Muell., Linnaea 25:375 (1853).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Square-fruit twinleaf
Description:
Small spreading annual; leaflets cuneate, rounded at the apex, continuous with the cuneate petiole, forming an apically 2-lobed leaf.
Flowers almost sessile; sepals 4; petals 4, oblanceolate, c. 3 mm long, about as long as the sepals, more or less acute at the apex, yellow; stamens 8; filaments winged in the lower part.
Capsule almost sessile, erect, narrow-oblong, 10-15 mm long, obtusely 4-angled, densely white-papillose in the longitudinal grooves between the angles, each angle terminating in an apical herbaceous erect appendage; seeds 2 or 3 in each cell.
| Zygophyllum prismatothecum fruit and leaf.
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Image source: fig 393o in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 443, fig. 531.
Distribution:
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On barren ground, often somewhat salty brown gibber soil.
N.T.; N.S.W.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: June — Nov.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Taxonomic notes:
Normally the style is shorter than or scarcely exceeds the fruit-appendages. In FR populations have been noticed with styles conspicuously longer than the fruit-appendages; these plants differ in their erect slender habit and shorter fruits which are thicker in the middle. Further observations and better collections are needed before it can be decided whether they deserve taxonomic recognition.
Author:
Not yet available
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