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Acantholimon acerosum var. acerosum

Description

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Family Rhamnaceae

Deciduous or evergreen , often thorny trees , shrubs , woody climbers , or lianas, rarely herbs. Leaves simple , petiolate , alternate or opposite, pinnately veined or 3-5-veined, entire to serrate, sometimes much reduced; stipules small, caducous or persistent , sometimes transformed into spines. Flowers yellowish to greenish, rarely brightly colored , small, bisexual or unisexual , rarely polygamous, (4 or) 5-merous, hypogynous to epigynous , in mostly axillary , sessile or pedunculate cymes, or reduced to few in fascicles. Calyx tube patelliform or hemispherical to tubular , sometimes absent, at rim with calyx, corolla, and stamens; sepals 4 or 5, valvate in bud, triangular, erect or ± recurved during anthesis , adaxially often distinctly keeled , alternate with petals. Petals 4 or 5, rarely absent, usually smaller than sepals, concave or hooded , rarely nearly flat, often shortly clawed. Stamens 4 or 5, antepetalous and often ± enclosed by petals; filaments thin, adnate to bases of petals; anthers minute, versatile or not, 2(or 4) -celled, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, usually introrse . Disk intrastaminal , nectariferous , thin to ± fleshy , entire or lobed , glabrous or rarely pubescent , free from ovary or tightly surrounding it, or adnate to calyx tube. Ovary superior to inferior, (1 or) 2-4-loculed, with 1(or 2) ovules per locule; ovules anatropous , basal and erect; styles simple or ± deeply 3-lobed or 3-cleft. Fruit either an indehiscent, rarely explosively dehiscent , sometimes winged , schizocarpic capsule, or a ± fleshy drupe with 1-4 indehiscent, rarely dehiscent, pyrenes (stones ) . Seeds with thin, oily albumen, sometimes exalbuminous ; embryo large, oily, straight or rarely bent.

About 50 genera and more than 900 species: almost cosmopolitan , mainly in subtropical to tropical areas; 13 genera and 137 species (82 endemic, one introduced ) in China.

Former classifications usually placed Rhamnaceae in the Rhamnales, together with Vitaceae and Leeaceae (Suessenguth in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam., ed. 2, 20d. 1953), or together with Elaeagnaceae (Thorne, Bot. Rev. 58: 225-348. 1992) . Orders such as Celastrales, Urticales, and Euphorbiales have often been considered as closely related groups. Recent analyses of DNA sequences strongly supported including the family in the Rosales, beside the closest relatives Barbeyaceae and Dirachmaceae (see Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 141: 399-436. 2003) . Suessenguth (loc. cit. ) grouped the family into five tribes , mainly characterized by fruit characters. Richardson et al. (Kew Bull . 55: 311-340. 2000; Amer. J. Bot. 87: 1309-1324. 2000) revised this tribal classification on the basis of a phylogenetic analysis using rbcL and trnL-F sequences of the plastid genome. Now 11 tribes are recognized, of which four are represented in the Flora area.



The bark , leaves, and fruit of several species of Rhamnus have been used as laxatives , notably R. cathartica and R. frangula. Diverse Old World species of Rhamnus provide yellow and green dyes as well as drugs. Timber of Alphitonia, Colubrina, Hovenia, and Ziziphus species is used for construction, fine furniture, carving, lathework, and musical instruments. Many Ziziphus species yield edible fruit; among them, Z. jujuba (Chinese jujube) and Z. mauritiana (Indian jujube) are cultivated on a commercial scale. Hovenia dulcis is also grown for its edible, fleshy inflorescence stalks . Species of Hovenia, Paliurus, and Rhamnus are cultivated as ornamentals .Yilin Chen & Carsten Schirarend "Rhamnaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 115,355. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Genus Acantholimon

Shrublets , usually thorny, pulvinate , often subglobose, many-branched. Leaves borne on current year's branches, crowded, sessile, persistent on old branches after withering; spring leaves at base of current year's branches and similar or different from summer leaves; leaf blade linear , linear-needlelike, or linear subulate, usually very shallowly obdeltate to subcomplanate in cross section , apex usually pointed to awned . Inflorescences borne in axil of spring leaves at base of current year's branches, branched or unbranched; spikes pedunculate , with 2--8 spikelets , arranged in 2 rows , sometimes rachis undeveloped with spike or spikelets axillary ; spikelets 1--5-flowered; bracts distinctly shorter than bractlet of first flower, margin membranous; first bractlet similar to bract, margin broadly membranous. Calyx funnelform or rarely subtubular; tube straight or occasionally basally oblique , inconspicuously herbaceous along ribs and scarious between ribs; limb purple, pink, or white, broad, scarious, 5- or 10-lobed. Corolla slightly exserted from calyx; petals basally slightly connate . Stamens adnate to corolla base. Ovary linear-cylindrical, apex attenuate. Styles 5, free , glabrous ; stigmas depressed capitate. Capsules oblong-filiform.

About 190 species: C and SW Asia, Europe; 11 species in China."Acantholimon". in Flora of China Vol. 15 Page 193. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Taxonomy

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Notes

A tentatively accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Acantholimon

There are approximately 413 species in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

A. acanthobryus · A. acerosum · A. acerosum (Willd.) Boiss. var. acerosum · A. acerosum subsp. brachystachyum · A. acerosum subsp. longibracteolorum · A. acerosum var. acerosum · A. acerosum var. brachystachyum · A. acmostegium · A. aegaeum · A. afanassievii · A. agropyroideum · A. ahangarensis · A. alaicum · A. alatavicum · A. alatavicum var. laevigatum · A. alavae · A. albanicum · A. alberti · A. albertii · A. albocalycinum · A. alexandri · A. alexeenkoanum · A. amoenus · A. anatolicum · A. androsaceum · A. androsaceum var. creticum · A. anisophyllus · A. annae · A. antilibanoticus · A. anzobicum · A. anzobicum var. albiflorum · A. ararati · A. araxanum · A. argyrostachyus · A. aristulatum · A. armenum · A. armenum var. armenum · A. artosense · A. arundoscapum · A. aspadanum · A. asphodelinum · A. assyriacum · A. astragalinum · A. asyriacus · A. atrofuscum · A. atropatanum · A. auganum · A. aulieatense · A. austro-iranicus · A. avanosicum · A. avenaceum · A. azizae · A. bakhtiaricum · A. balansae · A. balchanicum · A. baltanense · A. bashkaleicum · A. birandii · A. blakelockii · A. blandum · A. bodeanum · A. bodeanum subsp. pilosum · A. bonesseae · A. borodini · A. brachyphyllum · A. brachystachyum · A. bracteatum · A. bracteatum var. capitatum · A. brecklei · A. breviscapum · A. bromifolium · A. bromifolius · A. bromifolius var. iranicus · A. bromifolius var. lolioides · A. butkovii · A. cabulicum · A. caesareum · A. calocephalum · A. calverti · A. calvertii · A. calvertii var. glabrum · A. capitatum · A. capitatum subsp. sivasicum · A. carinatus · A. caryophylaceum · A. caryophyllaceum (Prickly Thrift) · A. caryophyllaceum caryophyllaceum · A. caryophyllaceum subsp. parviflorum · A. cataonicum · A. catenatus · A. cephalotes · A. cephalotoides · A. cephalotum · A. chitralicum · A. chitralicus · A. chlorostegium · A. chlorostegius · A. chrysostegius · A. cleistocalyx · A. collare

Bibliography

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More Info

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Notes

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Identifiers

Footnotes

Last Revised: 2008-09-07