Hermannia

Fat dollsrose Hermannia hyssopifolia, copyright evr7966.

Belongs within: Malvaceae.

Hermannia is a genus of subshrubs primarily found in Africa with a small number of species native to North America.

Characters (from Flora of North America): Subshrubs, rarely shrubs, prostrate to erect; taprooted. Stems hairy, hairs usually stellate, sometimes intermixed with capitate-glandular and subsessile glandular hairs. Leaves petiolate; stipules deciduous, foliaceous, narrowly dimidiate-lanceolate or narrowly dimidiate-ovate, triangular, margins simple-bristled; blade usually unlobed, rarely lobed, margins dentate or staminodes absent; filaments ligulate, very compressed, adnate to petal base and gynophore or ovary base, distally free, incurved, not abruptly dilated, expanded region narrowly oblong from base to above anther base, apex acuminate or acute, glabrous; anthers 2-thecate, lanceolate, [1–]2–3.5[–10] mm, inflexed, connivent to style, longitudinally dehiscent; thecae with rim ciliate from simple hairs, apex acuminate, slightly twisted, gland at apex only or also at theca base; gynoecium syncarpous, 5-carpellate, stipitate, 5-angled, locules opposite sepals; ovary 5-locular; ovules 4–14 per locule, ascending or horizontal, anatropous or amphitropous; styles persistent, 5, shortly exserted, presumably connate at anthesis (connate, distinct, or partially distinct dried), filiform; stigmas inconspicuous, terete and 1-dentate (acute) or filiform and often few-minutely papillate at apex, rarely truncate, inconspicuous. Fruits capsules, 5-locular, in apical view 5-angled, 5-lobed, parted between angles, in lateral view emarginate at apex, margins curved, stipitate, valve margins dark-rimmed, dentate, teeth terminated by hairy tubercles not elsewhere on fruit or hairy processes, denser on valves, stellate-pubescent. Seeds 0–8 per locule, brown, crescentiform-reniform, chalazal end wider, other end acute, large-pitted; elaiosome conspicuous, white; endosperm present; embryo curved, chlorophyllous; cotyledons flat, narrowly elliptic or oblong-elliptic. x=6.

<==Hermannia [Hermannieae] BAN98
    |--H. amabilis CV06
    |--H. complicata CV06
    |--H. elliottiana CV06
    |--H. engleri CV06
    |--H. gariepina CV06
    |--H. glandulosissima CV06
    |--H. hyssopifolia BAN98
    |--H. juttae CV06
    |--H. merxmuelleri CV06
    |--H. minimifolia CV06
    `--H. solaniflora CV06

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BAN98] Baum, D. A., W. S. Anderson & R. Nyffeler. 1998. A durian by any other name: taxonomy and nomenclature of the core Malvales. Harvard Papers in Botany 3 (2): 315–330.

[CV06] Craven, P., & P. Vorster. 2006. Patterns of plant diversity and endemism in Namibia. Bothalia 36 (2): 175–189.