10. Chrozophora Neck. ex A.H.L. Juss., Euph. Gen. Tent. 27. 1824. (‘Crozophora’), nom. cons.; Muell. Arg. in DC., Prodr. 15(2): 746. 1866; Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 30): 305. 1880; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 408. 1887; Pax in Engl., Pflanzenreich 4. 147. 6: 17. 1912; Plain in Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew 1918 (2, 3): 49. 1918; Pojarkova in Fl. U.R.S.S. 14: 288. 1949; Rech. f. & Schiman-Czeika, Fl. Iranica 6: 5. 1964; Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 445. 1972.
A. RADCLIFFE-SMITH
Monoecious annual or perennial herbs or shrubs. Indumentum stellate. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, simple, subentire, repand-dentate or sublobate, penni-, subtripli- or palminerved, often plicate or bullate when young, with 2 glands at the base of the blade. Inflorescences pseudoaxillary, supra--axillary, lateral or ± leaf-opposed, spicate, racemose or subpaniculate, distally ♂, proximally ♀. Male flowers solitary to their bracts; pedicels short; calyx closed in bud, splitting into 5 valvate lobes; petals 5, distally imbricate and coherent; disc 5-lobed, the lobes alternating with the petals; stamens 3-15, filaments connate into a column, anthers 1-3-seriate, oblong, erect, longitudinally dehiscent: pistillode 0. Female flowers borne on 1-4-flowered peduncles; pedicels long, often elongating and reflexing in fruit; sepals 5, open in bud; petals 5, smaller than in the ♂, or 0; disc ± as in the ♂; ovary 3-celled, with 1 ovule per cell; styles 3, connate at the base, ± erect, bifid. Fruit schizocarpic, leaving a columella; endocarp thinly woody. Seeds usually smooth, ecarunculate but enveloped in a thin pale shiny aril; albumen thick, fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat.
Mediterranean, Africa, S.W. & C. Asia. Authorities disagree on the number of species: Mueller (1866) has 6, Pax (1912) has 9, of which 1 is new and 2 resurrected, Prain (1918) has 11, of which 3 are resurrected from Pax and Pax’s new species is sunk. Willis (1966, 1973) gives 12 species. As with all natural groups, they tend to be difficult at the next level down. In Pakistan, there appear to be 4 species.
