Aptosimum albomarginatum Marloth & Engl.

Species

Angiosperms > Lamiales > Scrophulariaceae > Aptosimum

Characteristics

A herb or small shrub. It is erect and spiny. It grows up to 60 cm high. The stems are woody and pale brown. The leaves are narrow and sword shaped with a spiny tip. They are white with thickened edges to the leaf. The flowers are pale blue and tube shaped. They are produced in the axils of the leaves. The fruit are oval capsules 6 mm long.
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Erect or decumbent dwarf shrub up to 300 mm tall, densely branched or compact from base. Leaves with white, thickened margins, linear-oblanceolate, apex acute or obtuse, spinous-pointed, glabrous. Calyx lobes 4.5 mm long. Corolla 14-20 mm long. Flowers pale blue to purple.
Erect or decumbent, dwarf shrub, 80-600 mm tall, densely branched from base. Leaves linear-lanceolate, with thickened white margins. Flowers sessile, corolla tube ± funnel-shaped, streaked with white, lobes pale blue to purple. Flowering after rain.
Leaves 4–25 x (1)2(3.5) mm., linear-oblanceolate, acute or obtuse, spinous pointed, glabrous above, glabrous beneath or with few long, white hairs in area of midrib, margin thickened, white cartilaginous.
Erect or decumbent undershrub up to 30 cm. tall, densely branched or compact from base; stem woody, white to pale brown glossy, glabrous to sparsely setose-pilose; branches densely leafy.
Calyx 7 mm. long, lobes c. 1 mm. wide, joined at base for about 2.5 mm., linear-lanceolate, acute, externally sparsely long-setose mainly on median nerve, margin long ciliate-setose.
Corolla pale blue to purple; tube 14–20 mm. long, narrowed towards base, sparsely to subdensely short pilose without; lobes broadly ovate to subrotund.
Flowers axillary, sessile to subsessile; bracts or attendant leaves c. 5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, similar to leaves.
Capsule 5.5–6 mm. long, c. 4 mm. broad, obovoid-cylindrical, subcompressed, prominently parallel-nerved.
Lower stamens about half as long as corolla tube, anthers sterile; all anthers glabrous, subreniform.
Style minutely pubescent below, exceeding corolla tube.
Seeds c. 1.5 x 1 mm.; testa reticulately wrinkled.
Life form perennial
Growth form shrub
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention -
Sexuality hermaphrodite
Pollination -
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Mature height (meter) 0.3 - 0.6
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Flower color
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Nitrogen fixer -
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Environment

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in hot arid places with a marked dry season. It grows in well drained sandy or loamy soil. It grows between 760-1,800 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.
Light -
Soil humidity -
Soil texture 5-6
Soil acidity -
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Hardiness (USDA) 8-12

Usage

The leaves are used to make a tea like drink. It has a gingery taste. The roots are used as flavouring and to make a coffee substitute.
Uses coffee substitute food food additive medicinal social use tea
Edible leaves roots
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Mode -
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Images

Aptosimum albomarginatum unspecified picture

Distribution

Aptosimum albomarginatum world distribution map, present in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:799360-1
WFO ID wfo-0000540992
COL ID FZ82
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Aptosimum albomarginatum