21. Oryctes S. Watson, Botany (Fortieth Parallel). 274, plate 28, figs. 5–10. 1871.
[E]
[Greek orykter, digger, alluding to a name once applied to some of the indigenous people within the range of the genus, now considered derogatory]
John E. Averett†
Herbs, annual, viscid-pubescent, hairs sparse, scurfy, taproot fleshy. Stems branched. Leaves alternate, clustered at tips of branches, petiolate to subsessile. Inflorescences axillary, solitary flowers or 2–4-flowered clusters. Flowers 5-merous; calyx accrescent, tubular, lobes 5, narrowly triangular, slightly unequal, investing, not enclosing berry; corolla cream with purplish tinge, radial, tubular, 5-lobed; stamens inserted at base of corolla tube, ± unequal; anthers basifixed, globose, dehiscing by longitudinal slits; ovary 2-carpellate; style slender, slightly curved; stigma blunt. Fruits berries, globose, dry. Seeds flattened, reniform, margin hyaline.
Species 1: w United States.
Oryctes is monospecific and, because of the accrescent fruiting calyx, has been included among the genera surrounding Physalis. It is distinctive in having a tubular corolla and hyaline-margined seeds. A. T. Hunziker (2001) included Oryctes in Physalideae Miers subtribe Iochrominae Reveal; molecular data (R. G. Olmstead et al. 2008) support its relationship to genera near Physalis in Physalideae.
SELECTED REFERENCE Averett, J. E. and W. G. D’Arcy. 1983. Flavonoids in Oryctes (Solanaceae). Phytochemistry 22: 2325–2326.
