Polygala seminuda
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record
Image 1
Leaves and flowers
21 Dec 2008
Image 2
Flowers
21 Dec 2008
Image 3
Flowers
21 Dec 2008
Image 4
Leaves
21 Dec 2008
Image 5
Flowers
21 Dec 2008
Image 6
Habit
04 Apr 2009
| Family: | Polygalaceae |
| Full name: | Polygala seminuda Harv. |
| ID status: | ID not 100% certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | - |
| Synonym(s): | Polygala parva Chodat |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Herbaceous, erect, minutely downy or glabrous, with flexuous branches; leaves few and distant, patent, linear, tapering at base, sub-petiolate, flattish; racemes terminal (and lateral), erect, elongating, many flowered; pedicels very short, scarcely exceeding the elliptic, obtuse, sub-persistent bracts; alæ elliptical, oblique at base, obtuse, midribbed, ant. sepals obovate; keel very blunt, crested, lat. petals broadly spathulate; capsule obcordate; seeds half-glabrous. Root apparently annual? Stem 8–12 inches high, irregularly branched, terete. Flowers small, 1–2 lines long; the keel flesh-coloured, the alæ pale, with a green rib. The seeds are naked for half their length, and densely albo-setose on the other (upper) half. It comes nearest to P. leptophylla, but differs in habit, and in the seeds, &c. (from JSTOR website / Flora Capensis) Perennial herb up to about 30 cm. tall, with slender, greyish, crisped-pubescent stems. Leaves linear to linear-oblong, 10–13 x 1–1.5 mm., sparsely pubescent, tips recurved and mucronate. Flowers white, pedicels 1–2 mm. long, in elongated, terminal racemes up to 10 cm. long with sparsely pubescent rhachis and caducous bracts and bracteoles. Posterior sepal 2 mm. long; wing sepals narrowly obovate-elliptic, 6 x 2.5 mm., glabrous, rounded at the apex; anterior sepals free, 2 mm. long. Upper petals 3 mm. long; carina 3 mm. long, crest 1 mm. long. Stamens 8. Capsule 5 x 3.5 mm., narrowly obovate in outline, glabrous, margin narrowly winged. Seeds cylindric, 3 x 1.5 mm., with dense, white, silky hairs; caruncular appendages about 0.5 mm. long. (from JSTOR website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie |
| Content last updated: | 22 Nov 2011 |
