Directory       News       Site Map       Home
         
    Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Key to families | Table of families and genera

Previous taxon 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 |
Previous taxon

NITRARIACEAE NITRARIA FAMILY

Duncan M. Porter

Perennial [ shrub], fleshy.
Stem: branched.
Leaf: alternate, simple to irregularly divided, occasionally toothed or lobed; stipules minute or leaf-like.
Inflorescence: flowers 1 [or in cymes].
Flower: radial, bisexual; sepals 3–5; petals 3–5; stamens (10)15; ovary superior, chambers 2–6, each with [1,6] many ovules, style at tip or basal.
Fruit: capsule [ berry, drupe].
4 genera, 16 species: generally ± arid regions, n hemisphere, Australia. [The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 2003 Bot J Linn Soc 141:399–436] Based on molecular, anatomical, and morphological evidence, The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2003) indicates that Peganum and Nitraria, sometimes placed in Zygophyllaceae, are widely separated from Zygophyllaceae sensu stricto, and probably should be placed in a different family, in a different order (Sapindales) than Zygophyllaceae (Zygophyllales). —Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

PEGANUM HARMAL
Plant < 1 m; branches, leaves dense.
Stem: from woody rhizome, herbaceous.
Leaf: alternate, deeply, irregularly 2-ternately or ternately-pinnately lobed, fleshy; lobes 2–6 cm, linear, acute to abruptly soft pointed; stipules 1–4 mm, bristle- or leaf-like, deciduous or not.
Flower: sepals 4–5, leaf-like, entire to irregularly, deeply pinnately lobed, persistent, linear or lobes linear, acute to abruptly soft pointed; petals 4–5, white to yellow; stamens 12–15, filaments linear, bases dilated; ovary spheric, chambers (2)3(4), each many-ovuled.
Fruit: capsule ± spheric, leathery, irregularly loculicidal; chambers (2)3(4); style persisting as beak > fruit body.
Seed: many per chamber, triangular, dark, curved.
3 species: deserts, North America, n Africa, Spain; to China; Mongolia. (Name used by Theophrastus for "rues")

Previous taxon: Nitrariaceae
Next taxon: Peganum harmala

Contact/Feedback

Name search

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 occursRed area (if present) is the part of the bioregion lying between the upper and lower elevation limits of the taxon;
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 have georeferencing or identification issues.
map of distribution 1

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.
Map made in collaboration with Scott Loarie. Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
View all CCH records