Family: Moraceae |
I. Friis (1999) Dorstenia in Flora of Somalia 2: 91 Plants monoecious perennial herbs (in Somaliland and Somalia) or shrubs, often with fleshy or succulent above grounds stems (caudices) or with rhizomes or subterranean tubers; milky latex usually present. Leaves alternate or, in stemless species, arising more or less directly from the subterranean tuber, stipulate and petiolate; stipules lateral, free, rapidly deciduous or peristent; blades entire or with crenulate, crenate, dentate, or irregularly toothed or lobed margins. Inflorescences single or up to 5 together in the leaf axils, pedunculate, peltate, circular or elongated, with flowers on the upper surfaces, a thinner flowerless margin and, usually, long marginal appendages. Flowers densely crowded on or deeply embedded in the upper surface of the receptacles. Staminate flowers often more numerous than the pistillate flowers, only partly embedded in the receptacles; perianths 2-3-lobed and 1-3 stamens which are inflexed in bud; rudimentary ovaries sometimes present. Pistillate flowers deeply embedded in the receptacles, perianths without clearly defined lobes, usually with a more or less constricted opening through which the style protrudes; ovaries completely enclosed, with an obliqely placed lateral or terminal style having 1 or 2 stigmatic branches. Fruits subglobose to ovoid, with fleshy exocarps and a hard, smooth or rugose endocarps, ejected at maturity by the elastic exocarp. There are about 175 species of Dorstenia. They are widespread in tropical America and Africa and are also known from Madagascar, Socotra, the Arabian peninsula and one species in India. There are 3 species known from both Somaliland and Somalia and 4 from Somalia. Key to the species of Dorstenia in Somaliland and Somalia. |