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Tacca

J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. (1776)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Monocots Order: Dioscoreales Family: Dioscoreaceae Genus: Tacca

Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennial herbs from solid, starchy, tuberous, globose to elongate, vertical or horizontal rhizomes.

Stems: Rhizomatous, tuberous.

Roots: Fibrous root system.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades broadly elliptic. Margins entire to dissected. Veins parallel or palmate. Long-petiolate, petioles erect, solid or rarely hollow, ribbed, glabrous, with a sheathing base. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in umbellate cymes on a long scape, subtended by an involucre, the bracts 4–12, but usually 4, in 2 whorls, the outer ones usually longer, persisting after anthesis, always flattened. Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic. Flowers sometimes subtended by filiform bracts, pedicels 6–ribbed. Tepals 6, dark colored, basically petaloid, usually connate toward base into a short tube, the lobes in 2 alternate whorls. Stamens 6, in 2 whorls, inserted on perianth tube or at base of tepals; filaments short, flattened and somewhat petaloid, together with the broad connective forming a hood-like structure over the inflexed anther; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary inferior, 3-carpellate, 1-celled, obpyramidal, 6–ribbed; ovules numerous, anatropous, placentation basically parietal, each placenta with numerous ovules; style 1, apex with 3 obcordate lobes, each one with a stigmatic canal.

Fruit: Berries or occasionally a loculicidal capsules. Seeds 10 to numerous; completely filling the fruit; strongly ribbed; endosperm copious; cartilaginous.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Island Status

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Char. Gen. Pl.: 69 (1776)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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