Colchicaceae |
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Thulin, M. (1995) Colchicaceae in Flora of Somalia 4: 67-69 Plants erect or climbing. corm producing herbs. Leaves concentrated at the base or the plants or scattered along the stems, flat, usually linear to lanceolate, with sheathing bases, sometimes ending in a tendril. Inflorescences racemes or of solitary flowers. Flowers radially symmetric, usually bisexual; tepals 6, free or baally united, usually with nectaries at the bse; stamens 6, free or attached to the base of the tepals; filaments narrow or wide at the base, glabrous; anthers with 2 thecase, usually dorsfixed, longitudinally dehiscent; ovaries superior, 3-celled; styles 3-branched or 3 separate styles; ovules several to numerous per cell, placentation axile. Fruits usually seticidal capsules; seeds usually globose; embryos straight; endosperm present. The family Amaryllidaceae includes 15-17 genera and about 170 species, It is best represented in South Africa but is also native from elsewhere in Africa and from the Mediterranean through to Asia and in Australia. ©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Reproduced with permission. Key to the species of Colchicaeae in Somaliland and Somalia, in Pakistan. E. Nasir Plants with corms, corms brownish, without scale leaves. All leaves emerging from the corm, narrowly to broadly linear. Scape subsessile to sessile. Flowers bisexual; perianth of 6 tepals, united to form a tube or split to the base; stamens 6, inserted at the bases of the perianth segments, included; anthers extrorse; ovaries superior, sessile; trilocular; styles 3, free to the base or united within the perianth tube; ovules many. Fruits capsules, dehiscence septicidal. The Colchicaceae includes about 15 genera and 280-290 species according to Christenhulz and Bing (2016). It differs from the Iridaceae in having a superior ovary. Determining this often requires splitting the corm so as to see the base of the perianth. |
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