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Strychnos minor

Interesting Facts

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Description

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Family Loganiaceae

Trees , shrubs , woody climbers , or herbs, sometimes epiphytic, sometimes with axillary spines or tendrils . Leaves opposite, occasionally alternate, rarely verticillate , fasciculate, or in a whorl; stipules usually present, often reduced to lines connecting petiole bases , sometimes reduced to petiolar ocrea or a connate leaf-sheath; leaf blade usually entire, pinnately veined or 3--7-veined from base. Flowers in cymes, these often grouped into thyrses ; cymes sometimes umbel-like, scorpioid or reduced to a single flower; bracts usually small. Flowers usually bisexual . Calyx 4- or 5-lobed; lobes free or connate, mostly persistent , imbricate or valvate . Corolla sympetalous ; lobes 4 or 5(--16), valvate, imbricate or contorted in bud. Stamens inserted on corolla, included to exserted, equal in number to corolla lobes and alternating with them or sometimes fewer; filaments free, much shorter to much longer than anthers ; anthers basifixed , 2--4-locular, dehiscing introrsely or extrorsely by longitudinal slits, base slightly to deeply parted . Disc ring-shaped or not. Ovary superior or rarely semi-inferior, (1- or) 2(--4) -locular, placentation axillary or parietal ; ovules 1 to many per locule. Style simple , terminal , persistent or deciduous; stigma usually capitate, entire or shortly 2--4-cleft. Fruit a capsule, berry, or drupe, 1- to many-seeded. Seeds sometimes winged ; endosperm fleshy or horny ; embryo minute, straight; cotyledons small.

Some 29 genera and about 500 species: mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, absent from Europe; eight genera and 45 species (ten endemic) in China.[1]

Genus Strychnos

Shrubs , trees , or lianas, armed or unarmed . If lianas then with axillary simple or double curled tendrils , sometimes with axillary thorns. Stipules often reduced to a straight ciliate ridge connecting petiole bases . Leaves petiolate to sometimes subsessile ; leaf blade margin entire, basal veins 3--7, secondary veins 1--3 distinct pairs from or near base curved along margin in species represented. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, thyrsoid ; bracts scalelike to sepal-like. Flowers pedicellate or sessile, 4- or 5-merous. Corolla rotate to salverform ; lobes valvate in bud, spreading to reflexed when open. Stamens inserted at corolla throat to middle of corolla tube , exserted to included ; filaments long to short, mostly filiform ; anthers orbicular to narrowly oblong , base mostly slightly 2-cleft, introrse , 2-locular and separate. Ovary (1- or) 2-locular, with few to many ovules per locule. Style cylindrical; stigma capitate or faintly 2-cleft. Berries orange or red when ripe in species represented, usually globose to ellipsoid , thin- to thick-walled, outside smooth to minutely warty, glabrous ; pulp fleshy , usually orange; 1--15-seeded. Seeds ± flattened to saucer-shaped , circular to elliptic in outline; seed coat sericeous , felty, or scabrous and glabrous; embryo spatulate ; endosperm horny ; cotyledon leaflike.

About 190 species: tropics and subtropics; 11 species in China.

Many species are medicinal and poisonous.[2]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Dennst. Publication : Schl?ssel Hortus Malab. 33. 1818 [20 Oct 1818]

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Strychnos

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 7 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

S. angustiflora (Narrow-Flower Poisonnut) · S. ignatii (Saint Ignatius-Beans) · S. madagascanensis (Elongate Sole) · S. nux-vomica (Strychnine Tree) · S. potatorum (Water Purifying Fruit) · S. spinosa (Natal Orange) · S. toxifera (Strychnine)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 06, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Bingtao Li & Antony J. M. Leeuwenberg "Loganiaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 15 Page 320. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Strychnos". in Flora of China Vol. 15 Page 324. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-24