About
Contact
Links
Electronic Flora of South Australia
Electronic Flora of South Australia
Census of SA Plants, Algae & Fungi
Identification tools
 

Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Solanaceae
Nicandra

Citation: Adans., Fam. 2:219 (1763).

Derivation: After Nicander, a poet of Colophon, who wrote about plants c. 100 BC.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Annual herb with glabrous stems; leaves alternate, petiolate, very sparsely pubescent; inflorescence pseudo-axillary or rarely interfoliar.

Flowers solitary, pedicellate; pedicel puberulent; calyx usually glabrous; sepals 5, mutually appressed along their margins to form vertical wings, and fused along their margins for up to half their length from 'basal tips'; corolla 5-lobed, broadly campanulate, pale-blue to mauve on the limb and upper tube, whitish on the lower part of the tube with a blue spot near the base of each lobe; stamens 5, included, inserted near the base of the corolla tube; filaments densely pubescent on their dilated bases; anthers yellow, 2-locular, dorsifixed, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary 3-5-celled; stigma with 3-5 stigmatic areas.

Fruit a pale yellowish almost dry berry, the outer wall chartaceous (splitting irregularly at the base when ripe), enclosed in the accrescent chartaceous calyx; seeds brown, numerous.

Distribution:  Monotypic; native to Peru, now widely dispersed in tropical and temperate areas. (P. Horton (1979) Taxonomic account of Nicandra (Solanaceae) in Australia, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 1:351-356.)

Biology: No text

Author: Prepared by P. Horton


Disclaimer Copyright Disclaimer Copyright Email Contact:
State Herbarium of South Australia
Government of South Australia Government of South Australia Government of South Australia Department for Environment and Water