Zygophyllum simplex
| Family: | Zygophyllaceae |
| Full name: | Zygophyllum simplex L. |
| Location: | Along C28 (2215CD) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Brakkies, Brakspekbos, Rankspek, Panspekbos, Patrysdruiwe, Volstruisdruiwe, Erdmanopslag, Rankspekbos |
| English common name(s): | Simple zygophyllum |
| Synonym(s): | Zygophyllum simplex L. var. herniarioides Chiov. |
| Status: | Near-endemic |
| Description: | A diffuse wiry undershrub a few inches high; flowers yellow. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of West Tropical Africa) Annual; leaves simple, fleshy, cylindrical. A succulent annual, fragile when dry. Root perpendicular, as thick as a pigeon's quill. Stems as thick, many from the same root, decumbent at base, then erect, terete, pale, with alternate, divaricating branches, and alternate, rarely opposite, short, slender branchlets. Internodes in the stem 0.5–1 inch long, shorter in the branches. Leaves very widely spreading, sometimes 1.5–2 lines, sometimes 4–5 lines long, a line wide, narrowed at base, sub-sessile, very fleshy. Stipules hyaline, small, triangular. Flowers minute, 5-cleft. Peduncles axillary, solitary, 0.5–1 line long. Petals yellowish, clawed, obovate, twice as long as the obtuse sepals. Stamens as long as the petals. Scales bipartite to the base, hyaline, the segments oblong, obtuse, thrice as short as the filaments. Capsule mostly pendulous, 1 line long and wide, emarginate at the apex, obcordate, sharply 5-angled; style very slender, half as long as the capsule or longer. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Capensis) Annual to perennial herb, spreading, with up to 40 cm long stems, glabrous. Leaves simple, sessile, cylindrical to obovate, fleshy, up to 15 x 4 mm; stipules membranous, filiform. Flowers axillary, solitary or in pairs. Sepals obovate, c. 2 mm long. Petals yellow, c. 3 mm long. Filament scale bifid. Ovary glabrous; style c. 1.5 mm long. Capsule obovoid, c. 2.5 x 2 mm, deeply 5-lobed. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Somalia) |
| 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: | 12 Jun 2008 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/500 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
