Siegfriedia C.A.Gardner

Scientific Description

Family Rhamnaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs. ‘Normal’ plants. Leaves well developed. Plants with roots; non-succulent; unarmed; autotrophic. To 1 m high. Self supporting. Not heterophyllous. Leaves small; opposite; with blades; leathery; petiolate; simple; not peltate. Leaf blades entire; flat; oblong; pinnately veined; cordate. Mature leaf blades adaxially glabrous; abaxially woolly. Leaves with stipules. Stipules scaly; caducous. Leaf blade margins entire; revolute. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present, or absent; complex hairs present, or absent. Complex hairs stellate.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’. Inflorescence many-flowered. Flowers in cymes (and pseudo-heads). Inflorescences compound. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal; pendent; with involucral bracts. Involucral bracts prominent. Flowers long pedicellate; bracteate; minute, or small; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tricyclic. Free hypanthium present. Perianth sepaline; 5; 1 -whorled. Calyx present; 5, or 4 (rarely); 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed; glabrous; valvate; regular. Calyx lobes ovate. Epicalyx absent. Corolla absent. Androecium present. Fertile stamens present. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 5, or 4 (rarely). Androecial members adnate (to the floral tube); free of the gynoecium; free of one another; 1 -whorled. Stamens 5, or 4 (rarely); all more or less similar in shape; isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous; filantherous. Anthers separate from one another; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; bilocular; tetrasporangiate. Fertile gynoecium present. Gynoecium 3 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious; inferior. Ovary plurilocular; 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 3 - lobed. Ovules 1 per locule (in WA); ascending; anatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit aerial; a schizocarp. Dispersal unit the seed, or the fruit. Seeds 1 per locule.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia. South-West Botanical Province. A genus of 1 species; 1 species in Western Australia; 1 endemic to Western Australia.

Etymology. After Siegfried, a German mythical hero who possessed a magical cloak which rendered him invisible; the flower heads are hidden among large involucre-like bracts.