Seddera

Accepted name/Authority/Place of publication:

Seddera Hochst., Flora 27 [Bes. Beil.]: 7, plate 5, (1844).

Tribe:

Cresseae

Synonyms:

Seddera subgenus Schizanthoseddera Roberty Candollea 14: 29 (1953); Schizanthoseddera (Roberty) Roberty in Boissiera 10: 151 (1964).

Type: S. schizantha Hallier f.

Sedderopsis Roberty in Candollea 14: 29 (1953).

Type: Sedderopsis capensis (E. Meyer ex Choisy) Roberty (Seddera capensis E. Meyer ex Choisy).

Type Species:

Type: Seddera virgata Hochst. & Steud. [lectotype chosen by Meeuse, Bothalia 6: 662, 1958].

Habit:

Small suberect or prostrate subshrubs or shrubs or perennial herbs.

Leaves:

Leaves with variable shape and entire margins, commonly with medifixed hairs.

Inflorescences:

Flowers axillary or terminal, sessile or pedunculate, solitary or aggregated to form dense clusters of spikes, cymes, racemes or panicles. Bracts and bracteoles small, sometimes caducous.

Flowers:

Sepals 5, obtuse or acute at the apex, subequal or the outer ones larger than the inner. Corolla commonly white, rarely yellow or pink to blue, funnel-shaped with shallowly 5-lobed limb; mid-petaline areas hairy throughout or at least at the tips. Stamens 5, ± equal, inserted at the base and often with appendages; anthers oblong; pollen smooth. Disc absent or small. Ovary 2-locular, with 2 ovules in each locule, hairy all over or only above; styles 2, usually divided to the base, sometimes apparently simple; stigmas ± peltate or club-shaped to ellipsoid.

Fruits:

Capsule 4-valved or fruit sometimes indehiscent.

Seeds:

Seeds ovoid to trigonous, black or dark brown, glabrous.

Distribution:

Mainland Africa, Madagascar, Arabia and the Indian subcontinent.

Phylogeny:

Seddera has generally been placed in tribe Cresseae of Convolvulaceae. Within that tribe it is genetically closest to the genera of (former) Hildebrandtieae, i.e. Hildebrandtia and Cladostigma (Stefanović et al., 2002). These two tribes have been considered very closely related, with a monophyletic Hildebrandtieae nested within a paraphyletic Cresseae (Sebsebe Demissew & Austin, 1996; Stefanović et al., 2002). In the most recent analysis (Stefanović et al., 2003) these two tribes were united.

Number of Species:

Infrageneric Characters:

Infrageneric taxa have occasionally
been recognised within the genus. Roberty (Candollea
14: 29, 1953) described subgen. Schitzanthoseddera
[sic] for two species with deeply lobed, infundibular corollas, namely S.
schizantha Hall. f. and S. welwitschii Hall. f. The latter name is
here reduced to synonymy under S. suffruticosa var. suffruticosa.
Seddera schizantha was later
raised to generic rank as Schizanthoseddera (Roberty) Roberty in Boissiera
10: 151 (1964). The latter name has been overlooked by Brummitt et al. (1992)
although it is listed as a validly published name in Index Nominum
Genericorum (ING) and the International Plant Names Index (IPNI). We
here once again treat Schizanthoseddera as
part of the genus Seddera.

Other information:

Two sections are recognized 1. Styles two, free to the base or almost so, each with its own stigma. Sect. Seddera (28 species). 1. Styles apparently simple, diverging into two discrete stigmatic arms only at the apex. Sect. Socotroseddera (3 species).

Author/Editor

Author:

Sebsebe Demissew & R. Mill

Editor:

George Staples, Esmond Er

Publication:

Sebsebe Demissew &
R. Mill, Kew Bull. 64: 197–233 (2009).

Contributors:

Convolvulaceae Unlimited

Convolvulaceae

Seddera

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Seddera

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Seddera

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