Tribulus zeyheri
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record
Image 1
Flower
13 Dec 2008
Image 2
Fruit
20 Dec 2008
Image 3
Flower
20 Dec 2008
Image 4
Flower
21 Dec 2008
Image 5
Habit
05 Mar 2009
Image 6
Flower
21 Mar 2008
| Family: | Zygophyllaceae |
| Full name: | Tribulus zeyheri Sond. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Dubbeltjie, Diwiltjie, Geeldubbeltjie |
| English common name(s): | Calthrop, Large-flowered devil-thorns, Yellow devil's thorn, Devil thorn weed, Puncture vine, Goat's head bur, Maltese cross, Devil's thorn, Common dubbeltjie, Small calthrop, Devil's eyelashes, Burnut |
| Synonym(s): | Tribulus erectus Engl. fide SWA Tribulus inermis Engl. - (1888), non Kralik (1849).-- nom.illegit. fide SWA Tribulus pechuelii Kuntze fide SWA |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Flower 40 mm across Perennial herb with spreading prostrate or somewhat ascending branches, finely hirsute with longer scattered bristle-like bulbous-based hairs on all vegetative parts; branches up to 1.2 m long. Leaves unequal; the larger up to 9 cm long, with up to 9 pairs of leaflets; the smaller up to 5 cm long, with up to 4 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets 4–20 x 2–11 mm, oblique, very variable, oblong, oblong-ovate or ovate, acute or subacute, pubescent on both surfaces or glabrous above, often ciliate. Stipules up to 10 mm long, linear-lanceolate to obliquely ovate, ciliate. Peduncle 1.5 to 2 times as long as the subtending leaf. Sepals 5–10 (12) x 1.8–2 mm, linear-lanceolate, acute, densely pubescent. Petals bright yellow, 10–20 (25) mm long, up to 2.5 times the length of the sepals, broadly cuneate. Filaments 3–4 mm long, anthers (1.2) 1.5–2.5 (3) mm long. Style short; stigma 2–3 mm long, slender, pyramidal. Ovary with stiff bristle-like tubercule-based hairs. Intrastaminal glands connate, forming a shallow cup at the base of the ovary. Fruit breaking up into 5 cocci, each usually with 4 (sometimes 6) equal spines, or spines reduced to thick warts, tuberculate on the dorsal crest and often laterally compressed. (from JSTOR website) Leaflets in 6–8 pairs, sub-equal, obtuse; peduncle in the axil of the 2–3 times shorter leaf; petals nearly thrice as long as the calyx; stigma pyramidal, twice as long as the short style; carpels with 4 spines and prickly at back. Nearly allied to the preceding, especially to var. ?., with which it agrees in the silky-canescent leaves and smaller fruits, but differs in the peduncles twice as long, larger petals and stigma. Stems weak, 1–2 feet long, villous or glabrescent. Stipules ovato-lanceolate. Leaves unequal, one uncial, the other (from whose axil the peduncle springs) thrice as short. Leaflets 1.5–2 lines long, green above. Peduncles uncial. Sepals ovato-lanceolate, appressedly silky. Petals cuneate, 5–6 lines long. Style twice or thrice as short as the stigma, stigma 1 line long. Fruit smaller than a pea; the spines mostly unequal, the larger nearly 0.5 line long; tubercles numerous, hard, acute or sub-spinulous, mostly hairy. (from JSTOR website) |
| 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 |
