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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Plantaginaceae
Kickxia

Citation: Dumort., Fl. Belg. 35 (1827).

Derivation: After Jean Kickx, Sr, 1775-1831, a Belgian professor of botany, pharmacy and mineralogy and author of a Flora of the Brussels region.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Toadflaxes, fluellens.

Description:
Annual or perennial herbs; leaves alternate, the lower sometimes opposite, petiolate, broad, pinnately veined.

Flowers solitary in leaf axils; sepals more or less equal; corolla 2-lipped, produced at the base into a spur, the upper lip 2-lobed, the lower lip 3-lobed with at its base a prominent palate closing the mouth; stamens included; stigma entire.

Capsule with the 2 equal cells dehiscing by a single large pore with a detachable lid; seeds variable.

Distribution:  About 25-30 species from the Mediterranean region to western India, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands; 3 European species are introduced into S.Aust. (Ros. Fernandes (1972) Fl. Europaea 3:238-239).

Biology: No text

Key to Species:
1. Leaves rounded or cordate at the base, without basal lobes; sepals united in fruit; capsule depressed-globose; seeds alveolate
K. spuria subsp. spuria 3.
1. Leaves at least sometimes on a plant hastate or sagittate; sepals free in fruit; capsule subglobose; seeds tuberculate or alveolate
 
2. Capsule 2-2.5 mm diam., thick-walled; seeds tuberculate; pedicels 1.5-10 times the length of the subtending leaf
K. commutata subsp. graeca 1.
2. Capsule 3-4 mm diam., thin-walled, fragile; seeds pitted; pedicels 0.8-3 times the length of the subtending leaf
 
3. Pedicels glabrous apart from below the flower and at the base, at least when bearing fruit
K. elatine subsp. elatine 2a.
3. Pedicels hairy throughout
K. elatine subsp. crinita 2b.

Author: Not yet available


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