Gelrebia Gagnon & G.P. Lewis, PhytoKeys 71: 54. 2016.
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publication ID |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.240.101716 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/9197DD7C-04B9-1971-A43C-00DF4A3F1DBC |
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treatment provided by |
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scientific name |
Gelrebia Gagnon & G.P. Lewis, PhytoKeys 71: 54. 2016. |
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Gelrebia Gagnon & G.P. Lewis, PhytoKeys 71: 54. 2016. View in CoL
Figs 35 View Figure 35 , 37 View Figure 37 , 58 View Figure 58
Type.
Gelrebia rubra (Engl.) Gagnon & G.P. Lewis [≡ Hoffmannseggia rubra Engl.]
Description.
Erect to scrambling shrubs, armed with scattered, straight, or curved, deflexed prickles. Stipules minutes, caducous or lacking. Leaves bipinnate, ending in a pair of pinnae; pinnae 1-17 opposite pairs; leaflets 1-33 opposite pairs per pinna [except in G. glandulosopedicellata (R.Wilczek) Gagnon & G.P. Lewis], lower surface of the blades with numerous subepidermal glands or translucent dots. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary raceme. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic; hypanthium persisting as a wide shallow cup at the pedicel apex as the fruit matures; sepals 5, caducous, lower sepal strongly cucullate (occasionally with a beaked apex), covering the other 4 sepals in bud before anthesis; petals 5, free, dark pinkish mauve to light pinkish white, eglandular; stamens 10, free, filaments pubescent and eglandular; ovary glabrous. Fruit a coriaceous, broadly oblong-ovate to obliquely pyriform legume. Seeds laterally compressed.
Chromosome number.
Unknown.
Included species and geographic distribution.
Nine taxa in eight species, restricted to Africa, in Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire, Katanga) (Fig. 58 View Figure 58 ).
Ecology.
Deciduous bushlands, dry woodlands, on rocky ridges, often along dry riverbeds, or on sandy valley floors. One species also found in degraded savannas.
Etymology.
Gelreb or gelrib is the Somali name for Gelrebia trothaei subsp. erlangeri (Harms) Gagnon & G.P. Lewis, meaning 'camel trap’ and clearly alluding to the robust deflexed prickles characteristic of the species, and indeed the whole genus, which can hinder the passage of camels.
Human uses.
Unknown.
Taxonomic references.
Brenan (1963a, 1967); Brummitt et al. (2007); Curtis and Mannheimer (2005); Gagnon et al. (2016); Germishuizen (1991); Nkowki and Swelankomo (2003); Ross (1977); Roti-Michelozzi (1957); Thulin (1980, 1983, 1993); Wilczek (1951).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.