Family: Polygonaceae
Muehlenbeckia
Citation:
Meissner, Pl. vasc. gen. 227, t. 316 (1841).
Derivation: After Gustav Muhlenbeck, 1798-1845, an Alsatian botanist.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Lignums.
Description:
Shrubs, erect or climbing; leaves linear to orbicular, sometimes caducous.
Flowers small, green or yellowish, arranged in whorl-like bracteate clusters, mostly dioecious; segments or lobes of perianth 5; stamens usually 8, represented in the female flowers by barren filaments or minute anthers present; styles 3, more or less fringed.
Nut trigonous, enclosed in the enlarged persistent membranous or fleshy perianth.
Distribution:
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About 20 species in South America, New Zealand and Australia.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Leaves rather large and broadly lanceolate to orbicular |
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2. Leaves cordate, margins crisped or serrate |
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M. adpressa 1. |
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2. Leaves hastate, margins entire, sometimes undulate |
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M. gunnii 5. |
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1. Leaves narrow (linear to lanceolate) and usually small, often caducous |
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3. Leaves absent or a few on older branches; nuts trigonous |
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4. Flowers in distant clusters along branches; female perianth fleshy; fruits sessile |
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M. coccoloboides 2. |
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4. Flowers in distinct racemes or panicles; female perianth herbaceous; fruits shortly pedicellate |
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M. cunninghamii 3. |
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3. Leaves usually numerous, but often decreasing in size towards the apex of young branches; nuts trigonous to subglobular |
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5. Nuts subglobular; branches ascending, not spine-tipped; leaves mostly 1 at each node |
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M. diclina 4. |
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5. Nuts quadrangular; divaricately branched, the branches more or less spine-tipped; leaves fascicled |
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M. horrida 6. |
Author:
Not yet available
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