Skip to main content

Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

Advanced Search

Josephinia Vent.

Reference
Jard.Malmaison 2:67, t. 67. (1804)
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Family Pedaliaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Sub- shrubs, or herbs. Mesophytic to xerophytic. Leaves opposite (at least below); unpleasantly aromatic; simple. Leaf blades dissected, or entire; the lowermost ones often deeply 3-lobed; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins when simple, entire, or dentate. Leaf anatomy. Hydathodes present, or absent. Hairs present (hairs glandular and eglandular). 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; axillary; pedicellate; bracteate (the bracts with axillary abortive flowers functioning as nectaries); ebracteolate; very irregular. The floral asymmetry involving the perianth and involving the androecium. Flowers 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous (forming a lobed tube); blunt-lobed. Corolla 5; 1 -whorled; gamopetalous; imbricate; greatly widening upwards, slightly gibbous at the base; unequal but not bilabiate (the lower lobe larger than the other 4); pink, or purple; spurred, or not spurred. Androecium 5. Androecial members adnate (to the corolla tube); markedly unequal; free of one another; 1 -whorled. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 1 (the posterior member); non-petaloid. Stamens 4; didynamous; reduced in number relative to the adjacent perianth; oppositisepalous; all alternating with the corolla members. Anthers connivent (in pairs), or separate from one another; deeply 2-lobed at the base, the cells parallel; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; tetrasporangiate. Pollen shed in aggregates, or shed as single grains. Gynoecium 2 carpelled. The pistil 2 celled, or 4 celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious to eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 2 locular (morphologically), or 4 locular (often, ostensibly, via false septa). Locules secondarily divided by ‘false septa’, or without ‘false septa’. Gynoecium median; stylate. Styles 1; attenuate from the ovary; much longer than the ovary at anthesis. Stigmas 1; 2 - lobed; wet type; papillate; Group III type. Placentation axile. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous, or horizontal, or ascending; anatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy; spinose; indehiscent. Seeds thinly endospermic, or non-endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds with amyloid. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Not endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland. Northern Botanical Province and Eremaean Botanical Province.

Additional characters Corolla lobes spreading.