Cadaba aphylla

Cadaba aphylla ("Swartstorm") is one of the many species in the genus Cadaba. It is indigenous to southern Africa.

Cadaba aphylla
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Brassicales
Family: Capparaceae
Genus: Cadaba
Species:
C. aphylla
Binomial name
Cadaba aphylla
Synonyms
  • Cadaba juncea Harv.
  • Cadaba juncea Szyszył.
  • Cadaba juncea Harv. ex Hook. f. nom. illegit.
  • Schepperia juncea DC.
  • Cleome aphylla Thunb.
  • Cleome chrysogyna Gilg ex Heilbr.
  • Cleome ecuadorica Heilborn
  • Cleome intermedia Heilborn
  • Cleome juncea Sparrm. (1780) (1780), non Berg. (1767)
  • Cleome longistyla Heilborn
  • Cleome pichinchensis Heilborn
  • Cleome sodiroi Gilg ex Heilbr.

Description
Cadaba aphylla specimen in flower.

It grows as a straggly, perennial shrub or small tree, virgate, much-branched, dark green, often with purple bloom, and usually leafless, and may reach 2 meters in height. Its branches are somewhat succulent and frequently spine-tipped. Leaves of some 10 x 2 mm are found on seedlings and young branchlets.

Its deep-red flowers (rarely yellow) in axillary clusters have prominently exserted stamens, making this a colourful plant in summer. Fruits are some 90 mm in length, green at first, turning a rusty brown when mature, and covered in sticky hairs. A sticky orange pulp covers the small black seeds.[1][2]

"Leafless, twiggy shrub to 2 m. tall; branches rather virgate, stiff, smooth, green or glaucous with subspinous apices, glabrous, young branches with subulate leaf scales up to 2 mm. long. Flowers in short, corymbose, axillary racemes; rhachis 0.3–2.3 cm. long, glabrous or glandular-pubescent; bracts subulate, c. 1 mm. long; pedicels glabrous or glandular-pubescent, up to 1.3 cm. long. Sepals 4, yellow or reddish-purple, 1–1.7 x 0.7–1 cm., the lowest rather larger than the remainder, connate at the base into a very shallow receptacle c. 1 mm. in depth, broadly elliptic, obtuse at the apex, with capitate, glandular hairs densely or sparsely scattered on both sides. Petals 0. Androgynophore 2.5–3 mm. long, glabrous, shallowly declinate with a hooded nectary at its base c. 4 mm. broad. Stamens 8; filaments 1 cm. long; anthers 2.3 x 0.75 mm., oblong. Gynophore c. 1 cm. long, glabrous or glandular-pubescent. Ovary narrowly cylindric, glabrous or glandular-pubescent; ovules numerous, on 2 placentas; stigma capitate, sessile. Fruit up to 8 x 0.4 cm., cylindric, subtorulose, glandular or minutely verrucose, many-seeded. Seeds brown, c. 0.3 cm. in diam., subglobose."

— Hiram Wild (Flora Zambesiaca)

[3]

Distribution

This species may occur in dry bushveld or semidesert conditions from tropical Africa to Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa. At its southern extent, it occurs in clay-rich soils in the Little Karoo and Overberg regions, as far south-west as the town of Montagu.[4]

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References
  1. Cadaba aphylla - SANBI
  2. "Flora of Zimbabwe: Species information: Cadaba aphylla". www.zimbabweflora.co.zw. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  3. "JSTOR Global Plants: Search Results".
  4. Vlok, J.H.J. (2010). Plants of the Klein Karoo. Umdaus Press. ISBN 978-1-919766-48-5
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