Family: Asteraceae
Pterocaulon
Citation:
Elliot, Sketch Bot. S. Carolina 2:323 (1823).
Derivation: Greek pteron, wing; kaulos, stem; referring to the winged stems.
Synonymy: Monenteles Labill., Sert. Austr. Caled. 42 (1825).
Common name: (A. L. Cabrera & A.M. Ragonese (1978) Darwiniana 21:185-257.) Fruit-salad plants, pineapple fruits.
Description:
Perennial herbs and undershrubs, aromatic, with glandular and non-glandular hairs; stems leafy, branching, with continuous herbaceous wings, becoming woody below; leaves cauline, alternate, flat, decurrent, toothed.
Capitula small, sessile in dense terminal clusters without a conspicuous common involucre, heterogamous, discoid; capitular involucres narrowly ovoid, multisetlate; outer bracts short, oblanceolate, herbaceous, woolly; inner bracts much longer, lanceolate, scarious, erect, ultimately caducous; receptacle flat, naked; outer florets female, numerous, fertile; corollas filiform, 2- or 3-toothed; style branches filiform, truncate, glabrous; inner floret bisexual, normally solitary, sterile, 5-merous; anthers tailed at the base, with lanceolate terminal appendages; style branches short, papillose, hardly diverging.
Achenes more or less terete, pubescent; pappus uniseriate, of barbellate bristles, connate at the base.
Distribution:
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18 species in North and South America, south-eastern Asia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and Australia; 6 species, comprising the section Monenteles, in Australia.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Leaves lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate; inflorescences elongated, 2-3.5 cm long at maturity |
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P. serrulatum 1. |
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1. Leaves oblanceolate to oblong; inflorescences globose, 1-2 cm long at maturity |
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P. sphacelatum 2. |
Author:
Not yet available
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