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(Last Modified On 5/10/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/10/2013)
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Genus
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Priva Adans.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Fam. PI. 2: 505. 1763.
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Synonym
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Burseria Loefl., Iter Hisp. 194. 1758. Zapania Lam., Tabl. Encycl. Meth. Bot. 1: 58. 1791. Streptium Roxb., PI. Corom. 2: 25, pl. 146. 1798. Tortula Roxb. ex Willd., Sp. PI., ed. 4. 3: 359. 1801.
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Description
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Herbaceous, caulescent perennials, mostly harshly pubescent throughout; stems, branches, and branchlets more or less tetragonal, often decumbent. Leaves decussate-opposite or subopposite, simple, exstipulate, thin-membranous, sessile or petiolate. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, indeterminate, racemiform, often subspicate during anthesis, narrow, erect or subflexuous. Flowers mostly small, solitary in the axil of a small bractlet, arranged in a spirally alternate or pseudosecund manner on an elongated rachis, never whorled; calyx gamosepalous, tubular during anthesis, 5-ribbed, slightly 5-plicate, slightly irregular or nearly regular, terminating in 4 short and equal or subequal teeth, persistent, accrescent, enlarging with and investing the fruit; corolla gamopetalous, more or less irregular, hypocrateriform or infundibular, surpassing the calyx, the tube straight or some- what curved, more or less ampliate apically, the limb spreading, oblique, more or less bilabiate, the abaxial lip 3-lobed with 1 large central and 2 medium-sized lateral lobes, the axial lip 2-lobed, with usually very small lobes; fertile stamens 4, didynamous, the upper pair better developed and usually inserted slightly above the middle of the corolla-tube, the lower pair inserted approximately at the middle of the tube, all included or equaling the tube, the anthers erect, ovate or oblong, 2-thecate, dorsifixed at or below the middle, introrse, the connective usually con- spicuously thickened and sagittate, unappendaged, the thecae parallel or divergent basally, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, the fifth (posterior) stamen reduced to a minute staminode or absent; ovary 4-loculed or (by abortion) 2-loculed, the ovules basal, erect, anatropous, 1 per locule, the style usually equaling the lower stamens, 2-lobed apically, the anterior lobe longer and recurved or erect, stig- matiferous apically, the posterior lobe reduced, minute and tooth-like not stig- matiferous. Fruit a dry, often woody schizocarp included by the fruiting-calyx, composed of 2 usually similar, 2(or by abortion 1)-loculed cocci which separate easily at maturity, the pericarp hard, the dorsal surface echinate, scrobiculate or ridged, the commissural surface excavated, concave, or plane; seeds lacking endo- sperm.
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Habit
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Herb
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Distribution
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A genus of 26 species and infraspecific entities,' widely distributed in sub- tropical and tropical Asia, Asia Minor, Africa, and America.
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Key
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a. Corolla blue or lavender to violet, purple, or pink ...... 1. P. lappulacea fo. lappulacea aa. Corolla white ...... la. P. lappulacea fo. albiflora
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