Anacampseros

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Anacampseros
Anacampseros rufescens3 ies.jpg
Anacampseros rufescens
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Anacampserotaceae
Genus: Anacampseros
L.
Species

See text

The flower of Anacampseros rufescens is typical of the genus Anacampseros rufescens1 ies.jpg
The flower of Anacampseros rufescens is typical of the genus
Anacampseros subnuda illustrates one of the many variations in habitus within the genus Anacampseros subnuda, habitus, b, Skeerpoort.jpg
Anacampseros subnuda illustrates one of the many variations in habitus within the genus

AnacampserosL. is a genus comprising about a hundred species of small perennial succulent plants native to Southern Africa, Ethiopia and Latin America. The botanical name Anacampseros is an ancient one for herbs supposed to restore lost love.

Contents

The Australian species Grahamia australiana was at one time included in the genus Anacampseros, but the entire genus now is regarded as Southern African, and no longer includes any Australian representatives.

Description

Plants in the genus Anacampseros are perennial. In habit they are small undershrubs or sprawling herbs that may form dense mats. Mature plants of many of the species form a small caudex or a tuberous root-stock. The leaves of most species are succulent and may be either lanceolate in shape or rounded. [1] The arrangement of leaves on a stem is alternate. The leaves in most species are closely spaced, and in some species they are small and more or less hidden by papery or filamentous fascicled stipules. Some species have sessile flowers, often in an involucre. Other species bear their flowers on racemose peduncles. In contrast to the alternately born leaves, the bracts are opposite and scarious. The flowers are actinomorphic with two caducous sepals and five fugacious petals. The petals may be white, pink, or even pale purple. The plants flower from time to time in summer, and open on sunny days only. The numerous stamens are attached to the bases of the petals. The style is split into three. The ovary is superior, and ripens into a three-valved unilocular capsule that contains many seeds on a free-standing central placenta. In some species the three valves are misleadingly split into six valves. The seeds are compressed and may be angled or have three wings. [1]

Taxonomy

Anacampseros is now a genus in the family Anacampserotaceae, whereas until about 2010 it had been considered a member of Portulacaceae. [2]

AnacampserosMill. is a synonym of the genus Sedum , which is in a different plant family, Crassulaceae. [2]

Species

The following species were listed as accepted in the Kew Gardens Plant list at the start of 2016. [2]

Uses and significance

Folk uses and views on the genus are incoherent and regional. Some species are regarded as narcotic or outright poisonous, but tests on sheep gave no positive result and some of the notionally toxic species are used in adulterating beer. Several species have been used in making various forms of beer, but it is not clear what the intended effect might be, although some species appears to have some activity in hydrolysing some carbohydrates. Some species are used as charms and non-specific "medicines". [3]

Related Research Articles

Rhamnaceae Family of flowering plants

Rhamnaceae is a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales.

<i>Portulaca</i> Genus of flowering plants

Portulaca (, is the type genus of the flowering plant family Portulacaceae, with over 100 species, found in the tropics and warm temperate regions. They are known as the purslanes.

Portulacaceae Family of flowering plants

The Portulacaceae are a family of flowering plants, comprising 115 species in a single genus Portulaca. Formerly some 20 genera with about 500 species, were placed there, but it is now restricted to encompass only one genus, the other genera being placed elsewhere. The family has been recognised by most taxonomists, and is also known as the purslane family. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the highest diversity in semiarid regions of the Southern Hemisphere in Africa, Australia, and South America, but with a few species also extending north into Arctic regions. The family is very similar to the Caryophyllaceae, differing in the calyx, which has only two sepals.

<i>Haworthia</i> Genus of flowering plants In family Asphodelaceae

Haworthia is a large genus of small succulent plants endemic to Southern Africa (Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa).

<i>Calandrinia</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Gasteria</i> Genus of succulent flowering plants from South Africa

Gasteria is a genus of succulent plants, native to South Africa.

<i>Bulbine</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Asphodelaceae

Bulbine is a genus of plants in the family Asphodelaceae and subfamily Asphodeloideae, named for the bulb-shaped tuber of many species. It was formerly placed in the Liliaceae. It is found chiefly in Southern Africa, with a few species extending into tropical Africa and a few others in Australia and Yemen.

<i>Anacampseros arachnoides</i> Species of plant

Anacampseros arachnoides is a species of succulent plant native to the Little Karoo region of South Africa.

<i>Anacampseros albidiflora</i> Species of plant

Anacampseros albidiflora is a species of succulent plant native to the Great Karoo and Little Karoo regions of South Africa.

<i>Anacampseros retusa</i> Species of plant

Anacampseros retusa is a species of succulent plant native to the Northern Cape and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa, as well as to Namibia.

<i>Anacampseros telephiastrum</i> Species of plant

Anacampseros telephiastrum is a species of succulent plant native to the southern Karoo region of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa, from Robertson in the west, to Somerset East in the east.

References

  1. 1 2 Dyer, R. Allen, The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”. ISBN   0 621 02854 1, 1975
  2. 1 2 3 The Plant List (2013). Version 1.1. Published on the Internet; http://www.theplantlist.org/ (accessed January 2016)
  3. Watt, John Mitchell; Breyer-Brandwijk, Maria Gerdina: The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa 2nd ed Pub. E & S Livingstone 1962