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Erichsenia Hemsl.

Reference
Hooker's Icon.Pl. Ser.4,8, Pl. 2777 (1905)
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Family Papilionaceae. Mirbelieae.

Sometimes included in Leguminosae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs (or ‘shrublets’). ‘Normal’ plants to switch-plants (? — see Crisp and Weston, 1995); sometimes at least partially phyllodineous. Leaves well developed (rigid, hooked at the apex). Leaves cauline. Plants with neither basal nor terminal concentrations of leaves. Leaves alternate; spiral; non-sheathing; compound; unifoliolate (according to Crisp and Weston, 1995). Leaf blades dorsiventral. Leaves with stipules. Stipules intrapetiolar; free of one another; ‘bractlike’. Leaf anatomy. Complex hairs present, or absent (? — peltate hairs absent).

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Entomophilous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers ebracteolate; very irregular; zygomorphic; papilionaceous; tetracyclic. Floral receptacle with neither androphore nor gynophore. Free hypanthium present, or absent. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx present; 5; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed; blunt-lobed. Calyx lobes markedly shorter than the tube (about half as long). Calyx hairy; imbricate (‘middle lobe of lower lip outermost’); exceeded by the corolla; (sub-) bilabiate; non-fleshy; persistent; non-accrescent. Corolla present; 5; 1 -whorled; appendiculate, or not appendiculate. Standard not appendaged. Corolla polypetalous, or partially gamopetalous. 2 of the petals joined. The joined petals anterior (the keel members). The wings of the corolla free from the keel; not laterally spurred. Standard ‘normally’ developed; emarginate (reniform). Keel not long-acuminate/beaked; neither coiled nor spiralled; not bent and beaked. Corolla imbricate; deciduous; non-accrescent. Petals all clawed. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 10. Androecial sequence determinable, or not determinable. Androecial members free of the perianth; markedly unequal (alternately longer and shorter); free of one another; 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 10; all more or less similar in shape; diplostemonous; both opposite and alternating with the corolla members; filantherous. Anthers separate from one another to connivent; all alike; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; latrorse, or introrse. Gynoecium 1 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium monomerous; of one carpel; superior. Carpel stylate; 2 ovuled. Placentation marginal. Ovary sessile. Ovary summit glabrous. Ovules biseriate; non-arillate.

Fruit and seed features. The fruiting carpel dehiscent (? — ‘fruit and seed not seen’); a legume. Fruit 1 celled; 1 seeded, or 2 seeded. Seeds not mucous; non-arillate (the ovules being ‘non-strophiolate’). Testa non-operculate.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. A genus of 1 species; 1 species in Western Australia.

Additional comments. Encoded mainly from Hutchinson's description, which is very cursory and perhaps garbled.

Leslie Watson, 8 September 2016

Taxonomic Literature

  • Grieve, B. J.; Blackall, W. E. 1998. How to know Western Australian wildflowers : a key to the flora of the extratropical regions of Western Australia. Part II, Dicotyledons (Amaranthaceae to Lythraceae). University of W.A. Press.. Nedlands, W.A..