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Senega paniculata

(L.) J.F.B.Pastore & J.R.Abbott (2023)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Rosids Order: Fabales Family: Polygalaceae Genus: Senega

milkwort, root beer plant

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual herbs.

Stems: Stems erect to ascending, 1–5 dm long.

Roots: Usually many-branched, puberulent, roots with bubblegum-like odor.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Usually whorled. Blades oblong–lanceolate to linear, 1–2.5 cm long, 0.1–0.4 cm wide. Apex acute. Base attenuate. Surfaces glabrous. Margins entire. 1-veined. Sessile to short-petiolate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in axillary or pseudoterminal, slender racemes 3–12 cm long, each flower subtended by a small bract and 2 bracteoles. Flowers bisexual (perfect), zygomorphic, ca. 2 mm long. Calyx of 5 sepals, strongly unequal, outer sepals green, elliptic, ½ as long as inner ones, inner sepals (wings) petaloid, elliptic, ca. 2 mm long, 3–nerved. Corolla of 3(5), lowest and upper 2 adnate to staminal tube, lateral 2 much–reduced, lateral petals narrowly ovate, the keel appendaged. Stamens 8; filaments connate nearly to apex into a sheath split along upper side, adnate basally to keel and upper 2 petals; anthers basifixed. Ovary superior, laterally compressed, placentation apical; ovules 1 per cell, pendulous; style simple, elongate, terminal.

Fruit: Capsules 2–celled; oblong; nearly wingless; as long as or longer than inner sepals; glabrous. Seeds 1 per cell; black; ellipsoid; pubescent with short white hairs; aril small; with 2 membranous appendages.

Ploidy: 2n = 52–56

Habitat: Mesic to wet; disturbed areas.

Elevation Range: 40–1,100 m.

Historical Distribution

Images

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Uses and Culture

USES

Natural History

Statewide Status

Naturalized

Island Status

Kaua'i Naturalized
O'ahu Naturalized
Molokai Naturalized
Lana'i Naturalized
Maui Naturalized
Hawai'i Naturalized

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Notes

  • 10-1100 m
  • Description digitized by Joanne
  • Description digitized from the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii
  • Maui in 1974

Bibliography

Name Published In: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 108: 208 (2023)

Other References

Wagner et al. 1990:1058 (O, EM, H [as Polygala paniculata]); Lorence et al. 1995:48 (K); Oppenheimer et al. 1999:10 (WM); Oppenheimer 2006:13 (Mo); Oppenheimer 2007:30 (L); Pastore et al. 2023:208 (Syn. P. paniculata = S. paniculata)

Occurrences

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