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(Last Modified On 4/2/2013)
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(Last Modified On 4/2/2013)
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Genus
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Tribulus L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. PI. 386, 1753
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Reference
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Gen. PI. ed. 5, 183, 1754.
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Description
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Annual or occasionally perennial herbs, very rarely shrubby; stems herbaceous to suffrutescent, diffusely branched, prostrate to decumbent or ascending, terete, somewhat succulent, becoming striate on drying, densely pubescent to glabrate, spreading radially from a central tap root to 3 m long. Leaves opposite, elliptical, abruptly even-pinnate, one of each pair alternately smaller or sometimes aborting; leaflets 3-10 pairs, opposite, entire, sessile to very shortly petiolulate, oblong to ovate or elliptical, terminal pair pointed forward, pubescent; stipules foliaceous. Flowers solitary, pseudaxillary, regular; peduncles emerging from axils of alter- nately smaller leaves; sepals 5, free, pubescent, caducous; petals 5, bright yellow or rarely white, the base darker, free, spreading hemispherically, deciduous, im- bricate; disc fleshy, annular, 10-lobed; stamens 10, 5 opposite petals exterior, somewhat longer, and adnate basally to petals, 5 opposite sepals subtended to exterior and interior by nectariferous glands, the intrastaminal glands free or connate to form an urceolate ring surrounding ovary base, the filaments filiform
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Habit
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herbs
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Description
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or subulate, unappendaged, inserted on disc, the anthers cordate to sagittate; ovary sessile, 5-lobed and -loculed, ovoid or globose, densely pubescent, the ovules 3-5 per locule, pendulous, superposed in 2 vertical rows on placenta, placentation axile, the style simple, stout, cylindrical, 5-ridged, deciduous, the stigma terminal, pyramidal or globose, 5-lobed, papillose. Fruit 5-angled, horizontally depressed, pubescent, at maturity dividing septicidally and separating into 5 or rarely fewer mericarps and leaving no central axis; mericarps broadly triangular, each divided internally by oblique transverse septa into 2-5 1-seeded compartments, spiny or winged or rarely only tuberculate abaxially; seeds oblong-ovoid, obliquely pen- dulous, horizontally arranged one above the other, the testa membranaceous, the embryo straight, endosperm absent.-x=6.
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Distribution
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A genus of the Old World deserts, with perhaps several dozen species. Three species occur as introduced weeds in the Americas
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Note
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Tribulus terrestris L., has been collected in Panama. A second, T. cistoides L., is to be expected on the isthmus. The latter is a pantropical weed especially common in the Caribbean region and tropical Mexico. It is larger and more erect than T. terrestris and has flowers 1.5-4 cm in diameter. Tribulus cistoides is usually found in sandy mari- time habitats.
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