Family Talinaceae
Description: Dwarf shrubs with often tuberous roots or rootstock.
Leaves alternate, flat and slightly succulent, mucilaginous, entire, glabrous or tomentose, axils appearing naked but usually with a rudimentary axillary short shoot.
Inflorescence terminal and basically paniculate, or flowers solitary from leaf axils; flowers small to medium-sized and showy, bisexual, actinomorphic; sepaloids 2, deciduous or persistent at fruiting time; petaloids usually 5, sometimes 2–4 and not clearly separated from the sepaloids (Talinella, Amphipetalum); stamens 15–35; ovary superior, unilocular, composed of 3(–5) carpels.
Fruits many-seeded loculicidal capsules, or mucilaginous berries (Talinella), capsules covered by the dry remains of perianth, stamens and style which are shed in their entirety as a calyptra, capsules dehiscent from the tip and/or base and the valves deciduous, or the caducous exocarp separating from the persistent endocarp; seeds usually black and glossy, with a strophiola; embryo curved.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 3 genera, 27 species, America, Africa, Madagascar, Talinum paniculatum and Talinum triangulare pantropical weeds.
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Talinaceae, Order: Caryophyllales)
Wikipedia Previously included in Portulacaceae.
Text by Nyffeler & Egli 2010 (Taxon); page created by H. Sauquet (Nov 2020)
Taxon concept: Nyffeler & Egli 2010 (Taxon); APG IV (2016)
| One genus in NSW: Talinum |
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