Flora Zambesiaca

Taxon Detail

FZ volume:4 part:0 (1978) Aizoaceae by M. L. Gonçalves

(Search other Kew databases for: Sesuvium)

Sesuvium L. Key

Syst. Nat. ed. 10: 1058 (1759).

Range:

A genus comprising c. 6 species, 1 pantropical, 1 confined to the Galapagos Is., the rest to S. Africa, SW. Africa and southern tropical Africa.

Description:

Prostrate or semi-prostrate succulent annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, opposite or subopposite, usually petiolate and unequal, lanceolate, oblong or elliptic, entire, succulent, without stipules. Flowers axillary, solitary, regular, hermaphrodite, sessile or pedunculate, 2-bracteolate. Perianth 5-partite; lobes triangular, spreading, dorsally apiculate behind the tip, green outside, pink or purple inside; tube short, obconical. Stamens 5–?, free, inserted at the mouth of the perianth-tube. Carpels 2–3, superior, united; ovary 2–3-locular; styles 2–3; ovules ?; placentation axile. Fruit a conical circumscissile capsule, the lid pointed, remaining whole, thin-walled, the lower part thickened below the line of dehiscence or all over. Seeds several-?, black, rounded, with a prominent hilum, smooth or rugose.