Featured: Lysimachia arvensis Image from Stuppy & Kesseler
©Papadakis Publisher

  1. Family: Apiaceae Lindl.
    1. Genus: Physotrichia Hiern

      1. Physotrichia heracleoides H.Wolff

        This species is accepted, and its native range is W. Tanzania to N. Zambia.

    [FZ]

    Umbelliferae, J. F. M. Cannon. Flora Zambesiaca 4. 1978

    Habit
    Robust to wiry biennial or perennial herbs up to 80 cm. high, with scattered short bristly hairs which often become dense on the peduncles and rays.
    Roots
    Rootstock woody; stem terete with regular rather coarse grooves.
    Leaves
    Leaves mostly basal, those on the stem much reduced and present on the inflorescence only as sheathing bases with small appendages. Basal leaves simple with 3–5 broadly rounded subpalmate lobes up to 15 × 20 cm., to 2-ternate with leaflets similar to the lobes of the simple leaves; apex broadly to slightly emarginate, base cordate; margins ± regularly denticulate; petioles up to 20 cm. long, with slightly sheathing bases.
    Inflorescences
    Umbels terminal and lateral on long peduncles. Terminal umbels with 20–30 rays up to 4 cm. long; bracts and bracteoles very well developed and often conspicuous. Bracts 10–15, 2–2·5 cm. long, linear to narrowly lanceolate, bracteoles similar, up to 1·25 cm. long; both are either entire or may be markedly fimbriate (see notes). Partial umbels with 9–30 flowers on pedicels 5–12 mm. long.
    Flowers
    Calyx teeth well developed, narrowly triangular to subulate; petals white to pale cream.
    Fruits
    Fruit 5–3 mm. long, ellipsoid to ovoid, slightly dorsiventrally compressed, covered with vesicular hairs especially on the ribs. Stylopodium conical; styles short and often shed from the maturing fruit. Ribs obtuse.
    Vittae
    Vittae well developed, 1 in each interval, obvious externally and occupying most of the space between the ribs, and 2 in the commissural space.
    Carpophore
    Carpophore divided to the base, seed very slightly concave on the commissural face.
    [FTEA]

    Umbelliferae, C.C. Townsend. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1989

    Habit
    Perennial (? or biennial) with a tough taproot, ± 0.3–0.9 m. tall.
    Stem
    Stem simple with a few generally long, ascending branches, terete, narrowly striate and grooved, ± densely hirtellous.
    Leaves
    Leaves mostly basal, the lowest usually simple and broadly reniform, the remaining basal leaves varying from 3–5-lobed, with the lobes broadly rounded through trifid, or trisect, with the segments further shallowly lobed, to sub-bipinnate, with 1–3 pairs of deeply lobed petiolulate pinnules with broad lobes, margins wavy (especially in the forms with less divided leaves such as occur in Tanzania) and furnished with sharply pointed, patent, broad-based teeth; lamina broadly deltoid, usually broader than long, 2.5–16 cm. long, ± 3–25 cm. wide, sinus wide or the basal lobes overlapping; sheath broad, striate, membranous-margined, ± 1.5–2.5 cm.; petiole ± 2–15 cm.; indumentum similar to that of the stem; upper leaves commonly much reduced, of broadly oblong or tapering sheaths, the lower with a small to rudimentary lamina, the upper with none, more rarely stem leaves tripartite to trisect or subpinnate up to the inflorescence.
    Inflorescences
    Umbels flat, terminal on the stem and the alternate branches, or sometimes the uppermost on pedunculiform verticillate branches; true peduncles 1–11 cm.; rays (7–)10–30, hirtellous, 1–4.5 cm.; involucre conspicuous, of ± 10–15 linear, hirtellous and ciliate, pale- or reddish-margined, ± 1.5–3 cm. bracts which maybe entire or pectinate-fimbriate towards the apex; partial umbels ± 10–40-flowered, pedicels papillose, 3–12 mm.; involucel of ± 6–12 bracteoles similar to the bracts, 0.6–2 cm., entire or pectinate-fimbriate above or to the base.
    Calyx
    Calyx-teeth obvious, subulate, 0.5–0.75 mm.
    Corolla
    Petals creamy- or greenish-yellow, 0.75–1 mm., glabrous.
    Fruits
    Fruit elliptic to narrowly ovate, 5–8 × 3–6 mm., strongly dorsally compressed, densely covered with firm vesicular papillae, primary ribs pale, prominent, rather narrow; stylopodia shortly conical, subequalled by the rather thick, divergent, commonly purplish styles.
    Figures
    Fig. 29.
    Habitat
    In rough, rather dry grassland; 1500–2100 m.
    Distribution
    T4

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Burundi, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zaïre

    Physotrichia heracleoides H.Wolff appears in other Kew resources:

    First published in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 48: 273 (1912)

    Accepted by

    • Van Wyk, B.-E., Tilney, P.M. & Magee, A.R. (2013). African Apiaceae: a synopsis of the Apiaceae/Umbelliferae of Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar: 1- 317. Briza Academic Books, Pretoria.
    • Townsend, C.C. (1989). Flora of Tropical East Africa, Umbelliferae: 1-127.
    • Launert, E. (ed.) (1978). Flora Zambesiaca 4: 1-658. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
    • Lewalle, J. (1970). Liste floristique et répartition altitudinale de la flore du Burundi occidental: 1-84. Université officielle de Bujumbura.

    Literature

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    • Van Wyk, B.-E., Tilney, P.M. & Magee, A.R. (2013). African Apiaceae: a synopsis of the Apiaceae/Umbelliferae of Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar: 1- 317. Briza Academic Books, Pretoria.
    • Launert, E. (ed.) (1978). Flora Zambesiaca 4: 1-658. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
    • Lewalle, J. (1970). Liste floristique et répartition altitudinale de la flore du Burundi occidental: 1-84. Université officielle de Bujumbura.
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • Cannon in Flora Zambesiaca 4: 603 (1978).
    • H. Wolff in A. Engler, Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 48: 273 (1912).

    Sources

    Flora Zambesiaca
    Flora Zambesiaca
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0