Pedaliaceae
Harpagophytum

Harpagophytum zeyheri Decne.

First published in Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 5, 3: 329 (1865)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Mozambique to S. Africa. It is a scrambling tuberous geophyte and grows primarily in the desert or dry shrubland biome.

Descriptions

Pedaliaceae, H. D. Ihlenfeldt. Flora Zambesiaca 8:3. 1988

Morphology General Habit
Perennial herb with several prostrate annual stems from a succulent taproot, which often forms a thick tuber.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves petiolate; lamina usually 20–40 mm. long, rarely up to 60 mm., and 20–35 mm. broad, very broadly ovate to ovate, pinnatilobed to crenate, often polymorphic; petiole 10–15 mm. long (usually less than half the length of the lamina); limb of corolla purple or yellow, 15–25 mm. in diam.; tube purple, violet, pink or yellow outside, usually more or less yellow inside, 40–50 mm. long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Fruit with 4 rows of slightly curved arms bearing recurved spines, the length of longest arm not exceeding the width of the capsule proper, or fruit with 4 rigid wings bearing recurved spines, the wings in the upper portion of the fruit sometimes dissected into short arms; capsule proper 40–50 mm. long and 18–23 mm. broad, the total length of fruit up to 105 mm. and the total width up to 70 mm.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
Seeds 10–15 in each loculus, in two rows.
[FZ]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora Zambesiaca

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

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images