Tribulus cristatus
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Image 1
Habit
03 Mar 2009
Image 2
Fruit
03 Mar 2009
Image 3
Leaves
03 Mar 2009
Image 4
Habit
03 Mar 2009
Image 5
Flower
03 Mar 2009
| Family: | Zygophyllaceae |
| Full name: | Tribulus cristatus C.Presl |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Duifiedoring |
| English common name(s): | - |
| Synonym(s): | - |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Leaflets in about 5 pairs, sub-equal, acute; peduncles in the axil of a 3–4 times shorter leaf; petals broad, cuneate, twice as long as the calyx; style short; stigma pyramidal; carpels with two marginal-crested, unequally spinulose wings; disc of the carpels prickly. Very near the preceding, and also hairy, but the hairs are stiffer, less dense and the colour is greener. Stipules acuminate, 2–3 lines long. Leaf an inch or more in length. Peduncles 0.5–1 inch long. Flowers large, the petals in some 6 lines, in others nearly an inch long. Carpels 3-seeded, emarginate at summit, the ripe 0.5 inch wide and high; the wings membranous, twice as wide as the disc, armed at the margin with spines, 0.5–2 lines long. Seeds oblong. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) An annual, or possibly a biennial or perennial plant. Branches prostrate, radiating from the much branched rootstock, 12-100 cm long, usually again branched but not conspicuously so. Branches, stipules, leaves, peduncles and calyx, in fact all vegetative parts of the plant usually hirsute with bulbous-based bristly hairs ; internodes terete, striate, 0.5-6.0 cm long. Leaves unequal, the larger 1.5-6.5 cm long with 3-8 pairs of leaflets; the smaller (subtending a branch or flower) with 2-4 pairs of leaflets and much shorter than the first internode of the subtended branch, or the peduncle; stipules 2.5-8 mm long, obliquely lanceolate, acuminate, upper and lower surface hirsute or almost glabrous, with marginal bulbous-based hairs ; petiole hirsute or minutely pubescent, at times somewhat winged ; leaflets hirsute or glabrous except along the midrib above, hirsute and paler beneath, obliquely oblong, obtuse or acute, with marginal bulbous-based hairs, up to 14 mm long and 6 mm broad but usually much smaller. Pedicel 2.5-4 cm long, usually 2 to 3 times the length of the subtending leaf, striate, terete, set with tubercle-based hairs interspersed between a finer indumentum. Flower-buds abruptly acuminate. Sepals persistent, acuminate, 8-12 mm long. Petals broadly cuneate, up to 25 mm long, apparently always pale yellow in colour, twice or slightly more than twice as long as the sepals. Filaments up to 4 mm long, bearing anthers about 2 mm long. Style one-third to two-thirds as long as the stigma ; stigma conical-oblong, slender and 2-3.5 mm long. Disc at base of ovary a shallow cup formed bv the intergrowth of the intrastaminal glands. Mature fruits variable in size, glabrous except for a few bristle-like hairs, 6-25 mm long, 12-30 mm in diameter including the wings, finally breaking up into 5 cocci; cocci with lateral oblong rounded wings, dorsally ridged and set with tuberculate bristly hairs ; wings rounded, transversely markedly striate with marginal subrigid acute spines of unequal length often bearing an analogous spine dorsally from the centre of each wing near the body of the coccus, a character which appears to be unique and by which this species may readily be distinguished from all the other South African species. This spine may sometimes be intergrown with the wing and in such cases is less conspicuous. (An account of the South African species of Tribulus (Schwiekerdt, 1937)) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
