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(Last Modified On 3/21/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/21/2013)
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Genus
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Spigelia L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. P1. 149, 1753
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Reference
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Gen. P1. ed. 5, 74, 1754.
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Description
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Herbs (annual or perennial) or suffrutices, glabrous or pubescent with simple or stellate trichomes. Leaves opposite, often in a whorl or pseudo-whorl at the stem apex, connected by interpetiolar lines or sheaths or stipules; blades simple, most often membranous, usually pinnately nerved. Inflorescences spicate, terminal. Flowers hymaphroditic, secund, the pedicels reduced or absent; calyx-lobes 5, often slender, free or connate at the base, equal or unequal, persisting after the dehiscence of the capsule; corolla usually funnelform, delicate, the lobes 5, valvate in bud, shorter than the tube; stamens 5, the anthers included or exserted, the filaments not con- nate, attached to the corolla-tube; ovary 2-locular with several ovules per locule, the style slender, unbranched, grading almost imperceptibly into the stigma, the stigma not manifestly swollen, eventually articulating at the middle or somewhat above (thus with at least the lower 1/2 persisting). Fruit a didymous capsule open- ing by 4 valves (loculicidally and septicidally), subsequently dehiscing circumscis- silly above a persistent cupular base (the valves thus deciduous), the often ? ellipsoidal cupular base centrally foveate; seeds subglobose or ovoid, sometimes subangulate by mutual pressure, tuberculate or scabrous or reticulate on the surface.
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Habit
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Herbs
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Distribution
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A New World genus of about 50 species centered in South America but with some temperate representatives; one species (S. anthelmia L.) has become natural- ized in parts of Africa; as interpreted in this paper, two species occur in Panama.
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Key
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a. Spikes often 2-5 at the stem or branch apices (occasionally solitary); calyx- lobes minutely ciliate marginally, often unequal; capsules conspicuously muri- cate externally, the persistent cupular base pointed at the ends . 1. S. anthelmia aa. Spikes typically solitary at the stem or branch apices (rarely 2); calyx-lobes usually entirely glabrous, ? equal; capsules smooth externally, the persistent cupular base rounded to truncate or emarginate at the ends - 2. S. humboldtiana
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