Afrohybanthus Flicker - Spade flowers

Flicker, B.J. & Ballard Jr, H.E. (2015) Afrohybanthus (Violaceae), a new genus for a distinctive and widely distributed Old World hybanthoid lineage Phytotaxa 230(1) 3953

Description of the genus

Herbs, subshrubs or shrubs. Stipules entire, subulate and glandular. Leaves simple, alternate or opposite; base cuneate. Flowers solitary, axillary. Flowers zygomorphic. Sepals 5, almost equal. Petals 5, unequal, the anterior petal usually much larger than the others, spurred and unguiculate. Fruit a loculicidal capsule with 3 valves, keeled along the suture. Seeds spherical-ovoid with a small aril.

Derivation of name: The name refers to the centre of species diversity (Africa) of this group of species that were split off a formerly more broadly defined genus (Hybanthus). The English name, Spade flower, refers to the spade-like shape of the largest petal.

Comment: This genus was split from the formerly broadly defined genus Hybanthus which is no longer present in Africa.

Worldwide: c. 25 species in tropical subtropical Africa, Madagascar, Asia and Australia.

Mozambique: 5 taxa.

Afrohybanthus latifolius

Links to taxa:     View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesFZ divisionsContent
caffer (Sond.) FlickerZ
enneaspermus (L.) FlickerZ,T,MS,GI,MDescription, Image
latifolius (De Wild.) FlickerMSDescription, Image
nyassensis (Engl.) FlickerN
serratus (Engl.) FlickerGIDescription, Image

Other sources of information about Afrohybanthus:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Afrohybanthus
Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Afrohybanthus
Flora of Malawi: Afrohybanthus
Flora of Zambia: Afrohybanthus
Flora of Zimbabwe: Afrohybanthus

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Afrohybanthus
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Afrohybanthus
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Afrohybanthus
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Afrohybanthus
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Afrohybanthus
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Afrohybanthus
JSTOR Plant Science: Afrohybanthus
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Afrohybanthus
Plants of the World Online: Afrohybanthus
Tropicos: Afrohybanthus
Wikipedia: Afrohybanthus

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave 2007-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Mozambique: Genus page: Afrohybanthus.
https://www.mozambiqueflora.com/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=969, retrieved 19 March 2024

Site software last modified: 12 October 2020 11:11pm
Terms of use