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(Last Modified On 3/20/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/20/2013)
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Genus
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Pedilanthus Poiteau
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PlaceOfPublication
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Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris 19: 388, 1812, nom. gen. cons.
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Description
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Shrubs, succulent, becoming woody, usually erect to ascending and only sparsely branched, often somewhat zig-zag, milky latex in all parts. Leaves alternate, distichous; short petiolate; stipules small; blades expanded, fleshy, entire, early deciduous. Cyathia in axillary or terminal cymes, subtending bracts opposite; involucral bracts 5, partly connate, forming a slipper-shaped structure made up of a widely lobed ventral pair sometimes with glands on the dorsal edges, a basally asymmetric lateral pair with glands on the dorsal edges, and a dorsal bract with glands on each edge. Staminate flowers numerous, naked; monandrous; pollen grains ellipsoid, 3-lobed in equatorial view, usually intectate, 3-colporate. Pistillate flower terminal, solitary; naked; ovary 3-celled each with a single ovule, the styles 3, bifid, connate for most of length. Fruit a capsule or indehiscent; seed ovoid, smooth or tuberculate, ecarunculate.
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Habit
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Shrubs
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Distribution
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A tropical American genus of 14 species centered in Mexico. Only a single species is represented in Panama, and all collections (at least from naturally occurring plants), fall in the typical subspecies.
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Note
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The genus has been monographed by Dressler (Contr. Gray Harb., Harv. Univ. 182: 1-188, 1957), who treats exhaustively the variants that may be found as cultivated plants or escapes.
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