Sclerolaena R.Br.

Scientific Description

Common name. Bindieyes. Family Chenopodiaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs, or herbs. Plants succulent, or non-succulent; unarmed. Perennial. Leaves cauline (ass.). Plants with a basal concentration of leaves, or with neither basal nor terminal concentrations of leaves. Stems not ‘jointed’. Stem internodes solid (ass.). Helophytic to xerophytic. Leaves minute to large; alternate; spiral, or distichous; fleshy; petiolate to subsessile, or sessile; simple; epulvinate. Leaf blades entire; flat, or solid; terete, or semi-terete; linear, or obovate, or oblong, or elliptic; attenuate at the base, or cuneate at the base, or rounded at the base. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Hydathodes present, or absent. Hairs present (rarely branched), or absent; complex hairs absent. Branched hairs absent. Extra-floral nectaries absent.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite, or functionally male and functionally female, or functionally male, or functionally female, or hermaphrodite, functionally male, and functionally female. Unisexual flowers present, or absent. Plants hermaphrodite, or monoecious, or andromonoecious, or gynomonoecious, or dioecious, or polygamomonoecious.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’ (then unfused pairs); when solitary, axillary. Inflorescences when flowers paired, axillary. Flowers sessile; ebracteate (ass.); ebracteolate (ass.); minute, or small; regular; cyclic. Hypogynous disk present, or absent. Perianth sepaline; 3–5; 1 -whorled; joined (imbricate); fleshy, or non-fleshy; persistent; accrescent, or non-accrescent. Calyx present; not replaced by accrescent bracteoles; 3–5; gamosepalous; shortly blunt-lobed; imbricate; urceolate, or cupuliform (at first nearly globular, becoming cup-shaped); non-fleshy; persistent (in the fruit); accrescent. The fruiting calyx not berrylike; spiny, or tuberculate. Corolla absent. Fertile stamens present, or absent (from female flowers). Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 3–5. Androecial members free of the perianth, or adnate (to the base of the perianth); all equal (ass.); free of one another (ass.); 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 3–5; all more or less similar in shape (ass.); isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous (hypogynous). Anthers bent inwards in bud; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; tetrasporangiate. Fertile gynoecium present, or absent (from male flowers). Gynoecium (2–)5 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to synstylovarious; superior. Ovary unilocular; 1 locular; sessile (ass.). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 2(–3); partially joined. Stigmas 2–3. Placentation basal. Ovules in the single cavity 1; pendulous, or ascending; non-arillate; campylotropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy (pericarp membranous); indehiscent; capsular-indehiscent (a utricle); 1 celled. Gynoecia of adjoining flowers combining to form a multiple fruit, or not forming a multiple fruit. Fruit 1 seeded. Seeds more or less non-endospermic. Perisperm present. Cotyledons 2. Embryo curved (annular to horseshoe-shaped).

Etymology. From the Greek for "hard" and "a covering", referring to the hard perianth in fruit.