Chrozophora A.Juss.

Scientific Description

Family Euphorbiaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs, or herbs; non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. Plants succulent, or non-succulent. Herbs annual. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves small to medium-sized; alternate; spiral, or distichous; ‘herbaceous’, or leathery, or fleshy; petiolate; non-sheathing; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted; simple. Leaf blades entire, or dissected (lobed); pinnately veined, or palmately veined. Leaves with stipules. Stipules filiform; caducous, or persistent. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Urticating hairs present, or absent. Stem anatomy. Nodes tri-lacunar, or unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous; from a single cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Unisexual flowers present. Plants monoecious. Male flowers without pistillodes. Entomophilous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; male flowers subsessile in terminal spike-like racemes or in axillary fascicles; female flowers solitary at the base of the male. Flowers bracteate; minute to small; regular. Floral receptacle developing an androphore, or with neither androphore nor gynophore (? depending on interpretation). Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present; lobed or dissected. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sepaline; 10; 1 -whorled, or 2 -whorled; when two-whorled, isomerous. Calyx 5 (usually), or 10 (sometimes, in female flowers); gamosepalous; regular; persistent. Corolla present (in male flowers), or vestigial to absent (in female flowers); when present, 5; polypetalous; regular. Petals linear. Fertile stamens present, or absent (female flowers). Androecium 4–15. Androecial members branched, or unbranched; free of the perianth; free of one another (if filaments interpreted as arising from an androphore), or coherent (forming a short column); 1 - adelphous; 1 -whorled, or 2 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4–15; reduced in number relative to the adjacent perianth to triplostemonous; erect in bud, or inflexed in bud. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; bilocular to four locular; bisporangiate, or tetrasporangiate. Fertile gynoecium present, or absent (male flowers). Gynoecium 3 carpelled. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious, or synstylovarious; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 3 locular. Styles 3; free, or partially joined; forked; apical. Stigmas 6; dry type; papillate, or non-papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile, or apical. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; epitropous; with ventral raphe, or with dorsal raphe; arillate, or non-arillate; anatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy; a schizocarp (capsular, large, drooping). Mericarps 3. Fruit elastically dehiscent, or passively dehiscent. Seeds 1 per mericarp. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds arillate, or non-arillate. Cotyledons 2 (wider than the radicle); flat. Embryo straight, or curved. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Mustard-oils present, or absent.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Adventive. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria.