Tribulus terrestris
| Family: | Zygophyllaceae |
| Full name: | Tribulus terrestris L. |
| Location: | Along the B1 south of Mariental (2417DD) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Dubbeltjie, Gewone dubbeltjie, Duifiedoring, Duwweltjie, Volstruisdubbeltjie, Driedoringdubbeltjie, Dubbeltjiedoring, Duiweltjie, Hondedoring, Plat dubbeltjie, Rank dubbeltjie, Volstruisdoring, Geeldubbeltjie |
| English common name(s): | Puncture vine, Goat's head bur, Maltese cross, Devil's thorn, Common dubbeltjie, Calthrop, Small calthrop, Devil's eyelashes, Burnut |
| Synonym(s): | Tribulus albescens Schltr. ex Dinter fide SWA Tribulus murex Schltr. ex Dinter fide SWA Tribulus saharae A.Chev. fide Fl. W. Trop. Africa, ed. 2 Tribulus terrestris L. var. brachyceras Batt. & Trab. Tribulus terrestris L. var. inermis Boiss. Tribulus terrestris L. var. tomentosa Batt. & Trab. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Each flower is about 0.5 in. (12.5 mm) across, consisting of 5 yellow petals, 5 triangular green sepals, 10 stamens with yellow anthers, and a pistil with a 5-lobed stigma. Prostrate annual herb. All parts covered in long whitish hairs. Leaves opposite paripinnate, one leaf in a pair often longer than the other. Peduncle shorter than or as long as, the subtending leaf. Flowers solitary in leaf axils. Petals 3-8(-12) mm, light yellow. Fruit a hard triangular drupe with sharp spines. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) A spreading prostrate or decumbent annual, occasionally more or less frutescent below and persisting two or more years. Branches from a few inches to 2 or 3 ft. in length, pubescent, villous or hispid. Leaves in unequal pairs, the larger 1–2.5 in., with 5–8 pairs of oblong or linear-oblong, more or less acute, sessile or subsessile, opposite leaflets, oblique at the base, villous beneath, often glabrescent above. Peduncles 0.25–1 in., scarcely or not at all thickened in fruit. Flowers usually yellow. Stigmatic lobes longer than the diameter of the style (or shorter in ß. cistoides). Calyx deciduous. Fruit-carpels tubercled and often setose on the back and above, each carpel usually with 2 lateral divergent, straight, acute spines inserted above the middle and 2 shorter spines near the base directed downwards; the spines rarely reduced to mere tubercles. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Tropical Africa) Pubescent to villous annual. Leaves 2–6 cm long; leaflets 5–8 pairs, oblong to lanceolate, usually 4–18 x 1.5–5 mm; stipules linear to lanceolate, up to 8 mm long. Pedicel 5–10 mm long. Sepals linear-lanceolate, 3–6 mm long. Petals yellow, 4–8 mm long. Stamens 8–10; filaments up to 3 mm long. Style very short or absent; stigma ± pyramidal, c. 1 mm long. Fruit disc-shaped; pedicel c. 10 mm long; mericarps 4–5 x 2–3 mm, with 2 pairs of spines. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Somalia) Leaflets in 5–8 pairs, sub-equal, rather acute; peduncle from the axil of the shorter leaf; petals rather longer than the calyx; stigma sub-sessile, hemispheric; carpels with 2–4 larger spines, and prickly on the back. A decumbent or prostrate annual, with stems 6–12 inches long or longer, villous or glabrescent, in ß. hispid or hirsute. Leaves opposite, unequal, the longest 1–1.5 inch; leaflets oblong, acute, green above, sparingly appressedly villous, below appressedly pubescent, often whitish or silky. Stipules ovato-lanceolate, 2–3 lines long. Peduncles axillary, solitary, shorter than the leaf, the fruit-stalk nearly as long, villous or, in ß., hairy. Flowers yellow or whitish. Sepals 1.5–2 lines long. Petals 1/2 as long again as the calyx, obtuse. Stigma roundish-conical, 5-rayed, with inconspicuous style. Carpels crested and tubercled on the back, or prickly and hairy, in ?. more coarsely hairy, armed with 4, rarely 3–2 marginal spines, the two upper spines much divaricate, 3 lines long; 2 lower turned downwards and shorter. In var. ?. the upper spines are not more than 1 line long, often much shorter, sometimes very short and confounded with the dorsal prickles. Var. ß. is not unlike T. cistoides, &c., which, however, is readily known by its much larger flowers and long styles. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) |
| 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 |
| Photographer: | AA Dreyer |
| Date of photograph: | 21 Feb 2018 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | EOS 7D |
| Lens aperture: | f/9.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/3200 s |
| ISO speed: | 1000 |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
