Sceletium

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Sceletium
Sceletium tortuosum

Sceletium tortuosum

Systematics
Eudicotyledons
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Midday flowers (Aizoaceae)
Subfamily : Mesembryanthemoideae
Genre : Sceletium
Scientific name
Sceletium
NEBr.

Sceletium is a plant kind from the family of aizoaceae (Aizoaceae).

description

The species of the genus Sceletium are recumbent, prostrate, or rarely erect small shrubs with fibrous roots that often climb in other shrubs. The internodes are weakly lignified, the bark contains additional vascular bundles. The branches are slender, older ones often become strong at their base with age. Their flat, egg-shaped leaves are arranged opposite to one another and briefly fused together. They become alternate on the inflorescence . Dry leaves remain on the plants, giving them a skeletal appearance. There are no clearly defined central water-storing cells. The bladder cells of the internodes and deciduous leaves are mesomorphic and showy or not showy.

The flowers form little-flowered cymes and are rarely single. They are stalked or sessile and have a diameter of 20 to 40 millimeters. There are four to six persistent sepals available. The white, pale to bright yellow, pale pink or pale salmon-colored, pointed, notched or irregularly serrated petals are 1 or 2 millimeters wide. The sepals and the petals are fused together at their base to form a short tube. Thread-like staminodes are present. The nectaries are shell-shaped.

The four-, five or six-compartment, very light capsule fruits can have flap wings. The capsule fruits contain black or brown, D-shaped seeds with a rough seed coat . They are up to 2 millimeters long.

Systematics and distribution

The genus Sceletium is common in the South African provinces of Eastern Cape , Northern Cape and Western Cape in the Karoo in winter and summer rainy areas.

It was first described in 1925 by Nicholas Edward Brown . The genus Sceletium belongs to the subfamily Mesembryanthemoideae within the family of aizoaceae . The type species is Sceletium tortuosum . The genus was revised in 1996 by Maike Gerbaulet .

The genus Sceletium includes the following species:

proof

literature

  • Gideon Smith et al. a. (Ed.): Mesembs of the World: Illustrated Guide to a Remarkable Succulent Group . Briza Publications, 1998, ISBN 1-875093-13-3 , pp. 52 .
  • Heidrun EK Hartmann (Ed.): Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Aizoaceae FZ . Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 2001, ISBN 3-540-41723-0 , pp. 289 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gardeners' Chronicle . 3rd episode, London 1925, Volume 78, p. 412.
  2. ↑ Maike Gerbaulet: Revision of the genus Sceletium NEBr. (Aizoaceae) . In: Botanical yearbooks for systematics . Volume 118, 1996, pp. 9-24.
  3. ↑ Heidrun EK Hartmann (Ed.): Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Aizoaceae FZ . Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 2001, ISBN 3-540-41723-0 , pp. 288-290 .

Web links

Commons : Mesembryanthemum  - Collection of Images