Kickxia Dumort.

Scientific Description

Common name. Toadflaxes. Family Scrophulariaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Herbs, or herbaceous climbers. Annual, or perennial; plants with a basal concentration of leaves, or with neither basal nor terminal concentrations of leaves. Climbing (sometimes), or self supporting (mainly); the climbers stem twiners, or petiole twiners. Helophytic, or mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves minute to medium-sized; alternate, or alternate and opposite (then lowermost opposite); when alternate spiral, or four-ranked; ‘herbaceous’, or leathery, or membranous; petiolate; simple; epulvinate. Leaf blades entire; ovate, or elliptic, or orbicular; pinnately veined; cordate, or hastate, or sagittate, or rounded at the base. Mature leaf blades adaxially villous; abaxially villous. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire, or dentate. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Hydathodes present (occasionally), or absent. Hairs present; glandular hairs present, or absent. Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.

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

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; axillary; in racemes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose, or racemose. Inflorescences terminal. Flowers pedicellate; bracteate; ebracteolate; small to medium-sized; very irregular; zygomorphic; 5 merous; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx present; 5; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed. Calyx lobes markedly longer than the tube. Calyx imbricate, or valvate; more or less regular, or unequal but not bilabiate (when lobes subequal); persistent; accrescent, or non-accrescent; with the median member posterior. Calyx lobes ovate. Corolla present; 5; 1 -whorled; gamopetalous; lobed; imbricate, or valvate; bilabiate; plain, or with contrasting markings; white, or yellow, or purple, or violet, or blue; spurred (at the base). Androecium 4. Androecial members adnate (to the corolla); markedly unequal; coherent; 1 -whorled. Stamens 4; remaining included; didynamous; reduced in number relative to the adjacent perianth; oppositisepalous. Anthers cohering; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; unilocular, or bilocular; tetrasporangiate. Gynoecium 2 carpelled. The pistil 2 celled. Gynoecium non-petaloid; syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 2 locular. Gynoecium median; stylate. Styles 1; attenuate from the ovary, or from a depression at the top of the ovary; apical. Stigmas 1; 1 - lobed. Placentation axile, or apical. Ovules 50 per locule (to ‘many’); pendulous to ascending; non-arillate; anatropous, or campylotropous, or hemianatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy; hairy, or not hairy; not spinose; dehiscent, or indehiscent; a capsule, or capsular-indehiscent. Capsules poricidal (each cell dehiscing by a circumscissile caducous lid or more rarely a valve shaped persistent lid). Fruit 2 celled (cells equal); 50 seeded (to ‘many’). Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds minute to small. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight to curved. Testa with tubercles (or rugose or pitted).

Special features. The upper lip of the corolla incorporating 2 members, the lower 3; (posterior, adaxial) lip of the corolla bilobed. Lower (abaxial) lip of the corolla 3 lobed (with a projecting palate closing the throat).

Geography, cytology, number of species. Adventive. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, and Tasmania. South-West Botanical Province.

Etymology. After Jean Kickx (1775–1831), professor at Brussels.