(Last Modified On 4/9/2013)
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(Last Modified On 4/9/2013)
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Genus
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Lochnera Reichenb.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Consp. Regni Veg. 134. 1828.
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Synonym
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Catharanthus G. Don, Gen. Syst. 4: 95. 1837 (1838).
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Description
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Herbs, annual or perennial, subsucculent or sometimes subshrubs, lacticifer- ous. Leaves opposite, non-glandular, pinnately-nerved, sometimes slightly succu- lent; petiolate, glandular in the axils. Inflorescences cymose, sessile, sometimes reduced to a single flower, axillary. Flowers medium-sized; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes + equal, without squamellae; corolla salverform, white to pink, without appendages, but the tube sometimes thickened near the orifice, the limb 5-lobed, sinistrorsely convolute; stamens 5, barely included, the anthers free and not ag- glutinated to the stigma, without an enlarged connective; gynoecium 2-carpellate, apocarpous, the ovary superior, the ovules numerous, the nectaries 2, as high as the carpels and alternate with them, the style 1, the stigma pentagonal-umbra- culiform. Fruit apocarpous, of 2 terete follicles; seeds numerous, dry, subcom- pressed, naked.
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Habit
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Herbs
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Distribution
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A genus of six species, four endemic to Madagascar, one to India, and one pantropical.
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Note
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There is some disagreement concerning the validity of the generic name, Lochnera Reichenb., as opposed to Catharanthus G. Don. I follow Dwyer (Lloydia 27: 282-285. 1964) in using 'Lochnera, but admit that due to Reichenbach's (Consp. Regni Veg. 134. 1828) indirect reference to a previously published de- scription, the choice is a tenuous one.
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