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| Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Key to families | Table of families and genera |
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Indexes to all accepted names and synonyms: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | |
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Annual, perennial herb, shrub, tree, often vine; sap generally milky.
Leaf: simple, alternate, opposite, subwhorled to whorled, entire; stipules 0 or small, finger-like.
Inflorescence: axillary or terminal, cyme, generally umbel- or raceme-like, or flowers 1–2.
Flower: bisexual, radial; perianth parts, especially petals, overlapped, twisted to right or left, at least in bud; sepals generally 5, fused at base, often reflexed, persistent; petals generally 5, fused in basal ± 1/2; stamens generally 5, attached to corolla tube or throat, alternate lobes, free or fused to form filament column and anther head, filament column then generally with 5 free or fused, ± elaborate appendages abaxially, pollen ± free or removed in pairs of pollinia; nectaries 0 or near ovaries, then 2 or 5[10], or in stigmatic chambers; ovaries 2, superior or ± so, free [ fused]; style tips, stigmas generally fused into massive pistil head.
Fruit: 1–2 follicles, ( capsule), [ berry, drupe].
Seed: many, often with tuft of hairs at 1 or both ends.
200–450 genera, 3000–5000 species: all continents, especially tropical, subtropical South America, s Africa; many ornamental (including Asclepias, Hoya, Nerium, Plumeria, Stapelia); cardiac glycosides, produced by some members formerly treated in Asclepiadaceae, used as arrow poisons, in medicine to control heart function, and by various insects for defense. [Fishbein 2001 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 88:603–623] Asclepiadaceae ("asclepiads"), although monophyletic, included in Apocynaceae because otherwise the latter is paraphyletic. Complexity of floral structure, variation in asclepiads arguably greatest among all angiosperms. Pattern of carpel fusion (carpels free in ovule-bearing region, fused above), present ± throughout Apocynaceae (in broad sense), nearly unknown in other angiosperms. Base chromosome number generally 11; abundance of latex, generally small size of chromosomes evidently have impeded cytological investigations. —Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin.
Unabridged references: [Civeyrel et al. 1998 Molec Phylogen Evol 9:517–527; Rosatti 1989 J Arnold Arbor 70:307–401]
Perennial, evergreen, ± puberulent.
Leaf: opposite to subopposite.
Inflorescence: flowers generally 1 in leaf axils.
Flower: calyx lobes long, slender; corolla tube ± cylindric, lobes asymmetric; filaments free, attached near top of corolla tube, ± straight, unappendaged, anthers held above stigma, free from each other, stigma, each completely fertile, pollen ± free; nectaries 2, alternate ovaries, widely spaced, generally exceeding ovaries; style thread-like, stigma skirted at base.
Seed: glabrous.
3–7 species: Madagascar, India; cultivated, alien, widely naturalized in tropics, subtrop. (Greek: pure flower) [Kai et al. 1997 Soil Sci Plant Nutr 43:227–235]
Unabridged references: [Taylor & Farnsworth 1975 The Catharanthus alkaloids.]
Previous taxon: Asclepias vestita
Next taxon: Catharanthus roseus
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].
Copyright © 2012 Regents of the University of California
We encourage links to these pages, but the content may not be downloaded for reposting, repackaging, redistributing, or sale in any form, without written permission from The Jepson Herbarium.
| Bioregions in which taxon occurs | Markers link to CCH specimen records. If the markers are obscured, reload the page [or change window size and reload]. Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues. |
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Chart based on elevation range in Manual and elevations and coordinates of CCH records. Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria. Note: About half of the CCH records include both elevation and coordinates. | Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
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