''Pterodiscus'' is a genus of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the

Pedaliaceae Pedaliaceae, the pedalium family or sesame family, is a flowering plant family classified in the order Lamiales. The family includes sesame (''Sesamum indicum''), the source of sesame seeds. It comprises 13 genera and approximately 70 speci ...

family comprising several species with a native range from Ethiopia to S. Africa. The range passes through the countries of

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

, ,

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. Plus it is found also within the

Provinces of South Africa South Africa is divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, also known as Bantustans, were reintegrated, and the four existing provinces were divided into nine. The twelfth, thirteenth ...

Cape Provinces The Cape Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "CPP". It includes the Sout ...

, Free State,

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

and

Northern Provinces The Northern Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "TVL". It includes the So ...

. The genus was originally established by

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

from one species found in South Africa, ''Pterodiscus speciosus''.Ib Friis and Olof Ryding (Editors) The species was first published and described by

in Curtis's Bot. Mag. Vol.70 on table 4117 in 1844. The genus is accepted by

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

and the

Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...

but they do not list any species.

General description

They are perennial herbs,Focke Albers that have a thick

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...

(rootstock), that is either part of an underground tuber which is as wide as the above ground caudex, or the underground tuber can be wider and broader. Overall the plant does not reach more than high. From the caudex, an unbranched stem arises, normally every year. The leaves are sub-succulent and fleshy, and very variable in shape, ranging from linear to strap-shaped, undulate to broadly oblong. They are dentate (toothed), pinnatilobed, pinnatifid (meaning pinnately dissected to the central vein) or pinnatipartite. The solitary flowers arise from the leaf axils, which come in a range of colours, from yellow, (sometimes suffused with purple,) brilliant orange, red, wine-red, purple to dark purple. The calyx is small. The corolla is funnel-shaped or narrowly cylindrical, often slightly gibbous (rounded protuberance) at the base with a reduced spur. They have 4

stamens The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

and a bilocular (or 2 compartmented)

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

). The fruit (or seed capsule) is

indehiscent Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part; structures that op ...

(does not split down the side), instead it has 4 broad longitudinal, prominent wings (which are parchment-like). The upper part of the capsule is beak-like. The seeds are variable in both shape and structure of the testa.

Etymology

The genera name is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word '' ptero'' meaning 'winged' and the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''discus'' meaning 'disc'. This refers to the fruit structure, a flattened fruit that bears wings.

Species

There were 18 named species in tropical and South Africa, but most of these were found to be synonyms of other species. Known species include (according to

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

, and

Tropicos Tropicos is an online botanical database containing taxonomic information on plants, mainly from the Neotropical realm (Central, and South America). It is maintained by the Missouri Botanical Garden and was established over 25 years ago. The data ...

): *'' Pterodiscus angustifolius'' Engl. *'' Pterodiscus aurantiacus''

Welw. Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (25 February 1806 – 20 October 1872) was an Austrian explorer and botanist who in Angola was the first European to describe the plant ''Welwitschia mirabilis''. His report received wide attention among the ...

*'' Pterodiscus brasiliensis'' (J.Gay ex DC.) Asch. *'' Pterodiscus coeruleus'' Chiov. *'' Pterodiscus kellerianus'' Schinz. *'' Pterodiscus ruspolii'' Engl. *'' Pterodiscus speciosus'' Hook. '' Pterodiscus saccatus'' S.Moore and '' Pterodiscus undulatus'' Baker are listed by Hans-Dieter Ihlenfeldt, and '' Pterodiscus ngamicus'' N.E.Br. ex Stapf by Flora of Botswana. Also ''P. somaliensis'' Baker ex Stapf, ''P. wellbyi'' Stapf, ''P. heterophyllus'' Stapf, and ''P. purpureus'' Chiov. are listed as synonyms in 2001. While

Encyclopedia of Life The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of non ...

, lists 14 species including; ''Pterodiscus angustifolius'' Engl., ''Pterodiscus aurantiacus'' Welw., ''Pterodiscus cinnabarinus'' Peckover, ''Pterodiscus coeruleus'' Chiov., ''Pterodiscus elliottii'' Baker ex Stapf, ''Pterodiscus gayi'' Decne., ''Pterodiscus kellerianus'' Schinz, ''Pterodiscus luridus'' Hook. fil., ''Pterodiscus makatiniensis'' Peckover, ''Pterodiscus ngamicus'' N. E. Brown ex Stapf, ''Pterodiscus ruspolii'' Engl., ''Pterodiscus saccatus'' S. Moore, ''Pterodiscus speciosus'' Hook. and ''Pterodiscus undulatus'' Baker fil.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q310340 Pedaliaceae Lamiales genera Flora of South Africa