PlantNET Home DONATE TODAY | PlantNET Home | Search NSW Flora | Contact Us  
FloraOnline
Introduction
Plant Name Search
Index Search
Spatial Search
Identification Keys
Classification
Glossary
WeedAlert
Telopea Journal
Other Data Sources
NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE Printable Page

Genus Glossostigma Family Phrymaceae

Description: Perennial or annual herbs, sometimes obscurely gland-dotted, rooting at nodes.

Leaves opposite, sometimes clustered by suppression of internodes, lamina broader or thicker than the petiole, margins entire.

Inflorescence of flowers solitary in the leaf axils; bracteoles absent. Calyx tubular, smooth; teeth 4 or 3, short, unequal. Corolla 2-lipped, usually 5-lobed; tube symmetrical at base, neither swollen nor spurred; upper lip usually 2-lobed, lower usually 3-lobed, without a palate. Stamens 4 and didynamous or 2, usually included in corolla tube; anthers of pair(s) joined, 1-locular; staminodes absent. Stigma with a small vestigial flap, and a broad irritable flap, covering the corolla mouth, receptive above, when triggered appressed to the upper corolla lip.

Capsule thin-walled, loculicidal from the apex into 2 valves; seeds many, not winged, reticulate.


Distribution and occurrence: World: 6 species, Australia, New Zealand, India & East Africa. Australia: 6 species (3 species endemic), all States.

The relative conspicuousness of the midvein on the petiole and blade has been determined from spirit-preserved material.

Text by W. R. Barker
Taxon concept:

 Key to the species 
1Calyx teeth 4; plants often hairy on leaves and calyx; stamens 4Glossostigma elatinoides
Calyx teeth 3; plants glabrous; anthers 22
2Pedicels 2–15 mm long, erect in fruit; corolla opening fully, exserted from the calyxGlossostigma diandrum
Pedicels 0–0.5 mm long with the fruits down-turned into the soil; corolla rudimentary, hidden within the closed calyx
                       Back to 1
Glossostigma cleistanthum

  Privacy | Copyright | Disclaimer | About PlantNET | Cite PlantNET