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Annual or perennial climbing herbs, stems ridged. Stipules small, caducous. Leaves alternate, compound (2-ternate to apparently pinnate). Inflorescence axillary, at the apex of a relatively long peduncle, with a pair of coiled tendrils just below. Flowers zygomorphic. Bracts minute. Sepals 4; lateral small, the other 2 larger. Petals 4. Stamens 8. Ovary 3-locular. Fruit an inflated membranous capsule. Seed black with a white, ovate to reniform (sometimes ± heart-shaped) hilum. Derivation of name: Cardio: heart, spermum: a seed, referring to the heart-shaped hilum on the seed Worldwide: 14 spp, mainly tropical America, but with 3 spp. widespread in the tropics. Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon. |
No image of a cultivated species but there is an image of a native or naturalised species |
Species | Content |
grandiflorum Sw. | Description, Image |
Home | > | List of cultivated families | > | Sapindaceae | > | Cardiospermum |