Home | > | List of families | > | Euphorbiaceae | > | Tragia | > | kirkiana |
Synonyms: |
Tragia angustifolia sensu Benth. Tragia stolziana Pax & Hoffm. |
Common names: | |
Frequency: | |
Status: | Native |
Description: |
Climbing perennial herb with stinging hairs. Stems up to 3 m long, growing from a woody rootstock, sparsely hairy to almost hairless. Leaves triangular-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, up to c. 12 cm long, cordate at the 5-7-veined base, often hastate with 2 rounded lobes, sparsely hairy to almost hairless on both surfaces, sometimes bristly on the midrib and veins below; margin sharply dentate. Inflorescences terminal or leaf-opposed, up to 15 cm long on a peduncle up to 15 cm long. Flowers unisexual on the same inflorescence. Calyx of the female flowers densely covered in stiff hairs, consisting of 3 lobes; each lobe palmately divided into 11-13 linear lobes again (see image 3). Fruit 3-lobed, 4 × 8 mm, smooth, with rough hairs on the ribs of the lobes. |
Notes: | |
Derivation of specific name: | kirkiana: named after Dr John Kirk, who accompanied David Livingstone on his Zambezi expedition of 1858 |
Habitat: | |
Altitude range: | |
Flowering time: | |
Worldwide distribution: | Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mpumalanga, South Africa. |
Malawi distribution: | N,C,S |
Growth form(s): | Climber. |
Endemic status: | |
Red data list status: | |
Insects associated with this species: | |
Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
Literature: |
Burrows, J.E. & Willis, C.K. (eds) (2005). Plants of the Nyika Plateau Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 31 SABONET, Pretoria Page 149. (Includes a picture). Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 43. Radcliffe-Smith, A. (1996). Euphorbiaceae Flora Zambesiaca 9(4) Pages 235 - 236. |
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