Jepson Interchange (more information)
Print edition is available from the University of California Press
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This page is based on the 1993 Jepson Manual.
Please see the Jepson eFlora for up-to-date information about California vascular plants. |
| Jepson Flora Project: Jepson Interchange |
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TREATMENT FROM THE JEPSON MANUAL |
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Jepson Interchange (more information) |
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©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California
Print edition is available from the University of California Press |
| The second edition of The Jepson Manual (2012) is available from the University of California Press | |
| See also the Jepson eFlora, which parallels the Second Edition |
Annual, perennial herb, shrub, vine; sap milky
Leaves simple, generally opposite or whorled; stipules 0 or small
Inflorescence: cyme, terminal or axillary, umbel- or raceme-like, or flower solitary
Flower bisexual, radial; sepals 5, generally reflexed; petals 5, generally reflexed or spreading; stamens 5, fused to form filament column and anther head, generally with 5 elaborate appendages on outside of filament column, pollen removed in pairs of massive sacs; ovaries 2, superior, free, style tips generally fused into massive pistil head surrounded by anther head
Fruit: follicle (1 ovary generally aborts)
Seeds many, ± flat, with tuft of silky hairs
Genera in family: 50–250 genera, 2000–3000 species: especially tropical, subtropical South America, s Africa; ornamental (Asclepias, Hoya, Stapelia). Cardiac glycosides produced by some; used as arrow poisons, in medicine to control heart contraction, and by some insects for defense
Recent taxonomic note: Recently treated to be included within Apocynaceae
Perennial, shrub
Stem twining (elsewhere sometimes prostrate to ± erect)
Leaves opposite; blade often linear to narrowly lanceolate or hastate
Inflorescence axillary, often umbel-like
Flower: corolla generally ± spreading to ± erect, with ring of tissue at base; filament-column appendages free, ± spheric, attached to base of filament column, projections hollow; pistil head ± conic, 2-lobed, or both
Fruit generally erect, narrowly fusiform to narrowly ovoid, with fine longitudinal grooves
Species in genus: ± 34 species: North America, Africa to Australia
Etymology: (Greek: fleshy crown, from sac-like filament-column appendages)
Reference: [Holm 1950 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 37:477–560]
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Plant gray-green; hairs generally dense, short, erect
Leaf: blade base variously tapered
Flower: corolla white to greenish white; filament-column appendages fused to ring of tissue at base of corolla
Fruit generally 2, often spreading
Ecology: Hard desert pavement, washes
Elevation: 150–1200 m.
Bioregional distribution: Desert
Distribution outside California: Nevada, Arizona
Flowering time: Mar–MayHorticultural information: TRY.
| YOU CAN HELP US make sure that our distributional information is correct and current. If you know that a plant occurs in a wild, reproducing state in a Jepson bioregion NOT highlighted on the map, please contact us with that information. Please realize that we cannot incorporate range extensions without access to a voucher specimen, which should (ultimately) be deposited in an herbarium. You can send the pressed, dried collection (with complete locality information indicated) to us (e-mail us for details) or refer us to an accessioned herbarium specimen. Non-occurrence of a plant in an indicated area is difficult to document, but we will especially value your input on those types of possible errors (see automatic conversion of distribution data to maps). |
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