Ceropegia africana
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Ceropegia africana R.Br. (from Botanical Register, Volume 8, Plate 626, 1822) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ceropegia africana | ||||||||||||
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Ceropegia africana is a species of the subfamily of the silk plant family (Asclepiadoideae). It is based in South Africa.
features
Vegetative characteristics
Ceropegia africana is a perennial plant with creeping or twisting shoots. The little branched shoots are usually annual and have a diameter of 1 to 2 mm. They are often swollen at the lump, e.g. Sometimes rhizomes can also be formed. The flattened root tubers reach up to 5 cm in diameter. The leaves are stalked with petioles up to 5 mm long. The fleshy, upwardly concave downwardly convex leaf blades are linear-lanceolate in shape and pointed at the outer end. They are 15 to 25 mm long and about 10 mm wide.
Inflorescence and flowers
The little flowered inflorescence sits on a 2 to 15 mm long stalk. The five-fold flowers with a double perimeter are hermaphroditic and zygomorphic . They develop one by one. The sepals have a triangular to awl shape and are 3 to 4 mm long. The greenish white, purple-striped corolla is 2 to 2.5 cm, rarely 3 cm long (high) and bare on the outside. The "crown kettle" is spherical with a diameter of 4 mm. It decreases abruptly towards the corolla tube to 1 to 2 mm in diameter. The actual corolla tube is about 12 to 16 mm long, the upper part is widened like a funnel, and the diameter increases again to 4 to 5 mm. The funnel is covered with purple hair on the inside. The petal lobes are linear and 6 to 12 mm long. They are folded outwards along the longitudinal axis and initially incline from the base (lower quarter) together, then bend outwards to form an elongated, egg-shaped, cage-like structure. The ends of the tips are fused, occasionally the cage-like structure is slightly twisted. The lower part of the cage-like structure is purple, the upper part mostly greenish. The inner keel formed by folding back the lamina and also the edges of the corolla lobes are hairy. The short-stalked secondary crown is grown like a cup at the base. It measures 2 mm in diameter and is 2 mm high. The interstaminal corolla lobes are modified to form deep, egg-shaped pockets, the edges of which are often notched, and fused with the base of the corolla. They are trimmed with short hair. The upright staminal secondary corolla lobes are broadly sickle-shaped and 1.5 to 2 mm long. At first they bend together and from the middle they are strongly bent back. The pollinium has a diameter of about 0.25 mm.
Geographical distribution
The range of the species is in South Africa to the provinces Western Cape (Western Cape) and Eastern Cape limited (Eastern Cape). In the natural habitat, the flowers appear from December to February.
Systematics and taxonomy
The taxon was first described by the British botanist Robert Brown in 1822. Two subspecies are currently recognized:
- Ceropegia africana subsp. africana
- Ceropegia africana subsp. barklyi Bruyn (Syn .: Ceropegia barklyi Hooker fil. (1877), Ceropegia barklyi var. tugelensis N.E.Brown (1908)). This subspecies differs from the ssp. africana by the lanceolate, mostly somewhat larger leaves that are green on the upper side and purple on the underside. The sepals are subpulate and shorter. The corolla is on average slightly larger (up to 5 cm), the corolla is slightly pentagonal. The petal tips are longer and often twisted. The cage-like structure is often so narrowed in the middle that the tips touch. The secondary crown is almost sessile, not pedicled.
supporting documents
literature
- Ulrich Meve: Ceropegia . In: Focke Albers, Ulrich Meve (Hrsg.): Succulents Lexicon Volume 3 Asclepiadaceae (silk plants) . Pp. 61-107, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-8001-3982-0
- Herbert H. Huber: Revision of the genus Ceropegia. In: Memórias da Sociedade Broteriana , Volume 12, 1957, pp. 1–203, Coimbra (description by C. Achtii pp. 156–158)
- R. Allen Dyer: Ceropegia, Brachystelma and Riocreuxia in southern Africa. VIII, 242 S., Rotterdam, Balkema, 1983 ISBN 90-6191-227-X (in this work C. africana and C. barklyi are treated as separate species.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerrit Germishuizen: Transvaal Wild Flowers. 292 pp., MacMillan South Africa Pub., 1982.
- ^ Robert Brown: The Botanical Register consisting of Colored Figures of Exotic Plants Cultivated in British Gardens with their History and Treatment . Volume 8, 1822, plate 626 London. Online at Google Books
