Cynoglossum L

Madika, Lydia K. & Moteetee, Annah Ntsamaeeng, 2022, Taxonomic revision of the southern African species of the genus Cynoglossum L. (Boraginaceae), PhytoKeys 193, pp. 9-42 : 14-16

Cynoglossum L . ,

Sp. Pl. 1: 134 (1753) & Gen. Pl.: 5 (1754); Benth. and Hook . f., Gen. Pl. 2: 848 (1876); C.H. Wright in Fl. Cap. 4: 13 (1904); Baker and C.H. Wright in Fl. Trop. Afr. 4 (2): 51 (1905) ; Brand in Engl., Pflanzenr . 4: 252 (1921); Al-Shehbaz in J. Arnold Arbor.: 112 (1991) ; Selvi and Sutorý in Pl. Biosyst. 146 (2): 461–479 (2012) ; Hilger et al. in Biodivers. Data J. 3: e4831 (2015).

Type species: C. officinale L .

Paracynoglossum Popov . Fl. URSS xix.: 717 (1953).

Type species: P. denticulatum (DC.) Popov.

Perennial, biennial, or rarely annual herbs, often tall, up to 1, 2 m in height, and slightly branched. Stems and leaves canescent. Indumentum white, simple or tubercled. Leaves alternate, lanceolate, obtuse or spathulate, entire; first year basal leaves form a rosette, lanceolate or obtuse, often long petiolate. Inflorescences usually elongate, rarely bracteate, sparingly branched or loosely paniculate. Flowers pedicelled or subsessile; blue or violet with distinct veins, rarely white. Calyx five-partite, scarcely enlarged in fruit, patent or reflexed. Corolla tube short, throat closed with obtuse or arched scales; five-lobed, imbricate, obtuse, patent. Stamens five, included in the corolla tube, included, with short filaments, anthers ovoid or shortly oblong, obtuse. Ovary with four distinct lobes from an almost flat receptacle; style short or rather long; stigma small, flat or sub capitate; ovules horizontal, fixed to the central angle of the cell. Nutlets four, depressed, scarcely produced at the apex, convex or flat on the dorsal side or surrounded by an elevated margin, glochidiate (hair-like spines or short prickles). Seeds straight or slightly curve

Diagnostic key to the species

1 Soft woolly hairs covering the entire plant; nutlets thickened; glochidia densely arranged on the nutlet ................................................. 1. C. alticola

– Stiff bristle hairs covering the entire plant; nutlets slightly swollen; glochidia sparsely spaced on the nutlet....................................................................... 2

2 Nutlets 5 mm wide; glochidia thick at the base, fruit stalk up to 2 cm long .. ............................................................................................. 5. C. hispidum

– Nutlets less than 5 mm wide; glochidia uniformly shaped, fruit stalk up to 1 cm long ................................................................................................... 3

3 Inflorescences clustered at the apex; corolla bluish purple; glochidia dense at the margins and centre of the nutlet........................................ 2. C. amabile

– Inflorescences not clustered at the apex; corolla blue to white; glochidia dense at the margins and few at the centre of the nutlet........................................ 4

4 Spreading long trichomes covering the whole plant; corolla longer than 7 mm long ................................................................................... 7. C. obtusicalyx

– Sparsely shorter trichomes covering the whole plant; corolla shorter than 4 mm long.................................................................................................. 5

5a Corolla white with blue throat:

6 Trichomes not thickened on both leaf surfaces; glochidia evenly distributed across the nutlet............................................................... 6. C. lanceolatum

– Trichomes with pustulate base on the abaxial leaf surface; glochidia on the median line and centre of the nutlet ............................................................. .......................... 4. Cynoglossum coeruleum subsp. johnstonii var. mannii

5b Corolla uniformly coloured:

7 Leaves brightly green coloured on both surfaces, lanceolate-obtuse shaped; corolla pale blue; length of glochidia uniform throughout the nutlet ............ ................................................................................. 3. C. austroafricanum

– Leaves grey green on the abaxial surface, dark green on the adaxial surface, spathulate-obtuse shaped; corolla white; marginal glochidia longer than acentric glochidia.................................................................. 8. C. spelaeum