Apocynaceae
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Small trees, shrubs or herbs, usually glabrous; latex usually milky and poisonous; leaves simple, entire, opposite and decussate or rarely alternate, usually exstipulate.
Flowers solitary or cymose, hermaphrodite, symmetrical; sepals 5, fused; petals 5, fused, often showy, twisted in the bud; stamens 5, inserted on the tube, alternating with the perianth lobes; anthers introrse, closely surrounding the stigma and often fused to the style; ovary superior; carpels 2, usually separate but joined by the single style; ovules 2 or more in each cell.
Fruit a drupe or follicle.
Distribution:
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About 180 genera and 1,500 species, almost cosmopolitan but mainly in warm areas; 14 genera and about 65 species in Australia.
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Biology:
No text
Uses:
Cultivated species include Nerium oleander (oleander), Mandevilla laxa and Plumeria (frangipani).
Key to Species:
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1. Shrubs erect to 4 m high; flowers in cymes or umbels, white to pinkish or orange |
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2. Flowers 2.5-4.5 cm long; fruit a follicle |
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NERIUM 3. |
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2. Flower to 1.5 cm long; fruit a drupe |
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3. Leaves 10-20 mm wide; corolla orange |
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ALYXIA 1. |
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3. Leaves 3-6 mm wide; corolla white to pinkish |
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CARISSA 2. |
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1. Herbs with creeping stems; flowers usually solitary, blue |
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VINCA 4. |
Author:
Prepared by R. D. Pearce
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