﻿      FZ volume:9 part:5 (2001) Euphorbiaceae by S. Carter & L.C. Leach

*Monadenium Pax*   

in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 19: 126 (1894). —N.E. Brown in F.T.A. 6, 1: 450
(1911). —Bally, Genus Monadenium: 14 (1961). —S. Carter in F.T.E.A.,
Euphorbiaceae, part 2: 540–564 (1988). —Webster in Ann. Missouri Bot.
Gard.: 81 (1994). —Radcliffe-Smith, Gen. Euphorbiacearum: 417 (2001).

*Synonyms:*

Lortia Rendle

in J. Bot. 36: 29 (1898).

Stenadenium Pax

in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 30: 343 (1901). —N.E. Brown in F.T.A. 6, 1: 448
(1911). —Brenan, Check-list For. Trees Shrubs Tang. Terr.: 227 (1949).

*Range:*

A well-defined genus with currently over 70 species recognised, of which
20 occur in the Flora Zambesiaca area.Distribution is generally sparse,
but extends throughout the eastern tropical regions of Africa, from
northern Somalia southwards to the Northern Province of South Africa and
westwards into Angola.

*Description:*

Small trees, shrubs or perennial herbs, often geophytic (with aerial
parts dying back after the growing season) in the Flora Zambesiaca area,
with fleshy or succulent stems and branches and with caustic milky
latex, monoecious; roots thick and fleshy, often tuberous.Leaves
sometimes fleshy, glabrous or hairy, with stipules apparently absent, or
occasionally modified as glands or spines.Cymes axillary, with sessile
cyathia branching dichotomously, or cyathia rarely solitary; bracts
persistent, paired, free, or partly united along the ventral margin to
form an incomplete bract-cup and enveloping the involucre.Cyathia with
numerous male flowers in 5 groups surrounding a solitary female flower
and all enclosed within a cup-like involucre.Involucres with glands
fused to form an entire rim deeply notched on the dorsal side, and
surrounding the 5 fringed lobes.Male flowers in 5 groups, bracteolate,
scarcely exserted.Female flower pedicellate; perianth reduced to a rim
below the ovary, rarely shortly 3-lobed; styles 3, joined at the base,
stigmas bifid.Capsule exserted through the notch in the glandular rim,
dehiscent.Seeds with or without a caruncle.

*Notes:*

The genus is distinguished primarily by the entire, horseshoe-shaped
involucral gland, which has a wide rim extended to protect the ovary
exserted through the notch.The persistent bracts, which envelope the
involucre, are usually united behind the glandular rim and are sometimes
large and showy.The seeds are usually oblong, with a relatively large
mushroom-shaped caruncle capping the apex, or sometimes ovoid in some
geophytic species and either with or without a rounded caruncle.In the
Flora Zambesiaca area, the habit ranges from small geophytes to herbs or
shrubs with stems ± fleshy, or occasionally strongly succulent.


