Isoetes schweinfurthii A. Braun ex Baker
Synonyms |
Calamaria schweinfurthii A. Braun ex Baker |
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Common name |
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Description |
Pseudo-corms 3-lobed; bud scales dark brown to blackish, triangular-cuspidate, ± 6 × 4 mm. Leaves 5-40, narrow, stiff, 150-600 × c.1 mm (at apex) - c.10 mm (around sporangium), broadly winged, apex tapering to a point. Ligule narrowly triangular, sides convex, abruptly pointed, 2-6 mm long, pale, covered by a membranous serrate lip in the lower half. Velum absent or reduced to a vestigial rim. Sporangia 4-12 × 5-9 mm, oblong-obovate to circular. Megaspores 0.4-0.5 mm in diameter, ash-grey to whitish, upper surface almost smooth or with a few tubercles, lower tuberculate with conical warts. Microspores not seen. |
Notes | I. alstonii is distinguished from I. schweinfurthii by its 2-lobed pseudo-corm. I. schweinfurhii is separated from I. aequinoctialis by lacking a velum. |
Derivation | schweinfurthii: named after Dr Georg August Schweinfurth (1836-1925), German botanical collector and taxonomist. |
Habitat | Shallow seasonally inundated pans in dry deciduous woodland or sometimes in sandy soils overlying sheetrock along river margins. |
Distribution worldwide | Africa, Madagascar. |
Distribution in Africa |
Angola, Benin, Burkina Fasso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco and Western Sahara, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Zambia, Zimbabwe. |
Growth form |
Terrestrial. |
Literature |
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