Salomonia Lour.

Scientific Description

Family Polygalaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Herbs; bearing essential oils, or without essential oils. Autotrophic, or partially parasitic. When parasitic, on roots of the host. Annual, or perennial; plants with neither basal nor terminal concentrations of leaves. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves alternate, or opposite, or whorled; ‘herbaceous’, or leathery, or membranous; petiolate to sessile; non-sheathing; simple. Leaf blades entire; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves with stipules, or without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Stem anatomy. Nodes unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries absent. Entomophilous. Pollination mechanism conspicuously specialized, or unspecialized.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in spikes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Flowers bracteate; bracteolate; small; very irregular; medianly zygomorphic. The floral asymmetry involving the perianth and involving the androecium. Flowers ‘pseudo-papilionaceous’; cyclic; pentacyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present, or absent. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8; 2 -whorled; anisomerous. Calyx 5 (the two inner members large); 1 -whorled; gamosepalous (basally); imbricate; unequal but not bilabiate; not persistent; with the median member posterior. Corolla 3; 1 -whorled; gamopetalous, or polypetalous; unequal but not bilabiate (zygomorphic, the abaxial petal boat-shaped); pink to purple, or white. Androecium 4. Androecial members adnate (to the corolla); coherent; 1 - adelphous (the filaments united below into a tube, this adnate to the upper petals); 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4. Anthers basifixed; dehiscing via a ventral, falciform slit; unilocular to bilocular; bisporangiate (by reduction). Gynoecium 2 carpelled. The pistil 2 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 2 locular. Gynoecium median; stylate. Styles 1 (curved); simple; apical. Stigmas 1; dry type; non-papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; epitropous; with ventral raphe; arillate, or non-arillate; anatropous, or hemianatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy; spinose (cell margins with a double row of 6–10 spines; lateral walls with or without spines); dehiscent; a capsule (transversely elliptic, laterally compressed). Capsules loculicidal. Seeds endospermic, or non-endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds not conspicuously hairy. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Aluminium accumulation not found.