Strychnos

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Scientific Names

Loganiaceae >

Strychnos >

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Strychnos is a genus of flowering plants, belonging to family Loganiaceae (sometimes Strychnaceae). The genus includes about 190 species of trees and lianas, distributed around the world's tropics.

Read about Strychnos in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Strychnos (an old Greek name used by Theophrastus for some plants belonging to Solanaceae). Loganiaceae. Scandent shrubs with short tendrils, or trees, of economic importance: some of the species have been introduced into the southern United States. Leaves opposite, in scandent species some axils bear short clavate tendrils, the adjacent lf. being often suppressed: cymes terminal or lateral; bracts small: fls. white to yellowish; calyx 5-4-lobed; corolla 5-4-cleft, tube short or long or hardly any, lobes valvate; stamens 5; ovary 2-celled (or 1-celled above): berry globose or oblong. — About 220 species, tropics of both hemispheres. S. Schumanniana, Gilg (S. Schumanni, Hort.). Tree, 12-22 ft. high with axillary recurved spines: lvs. decussate, elliptical, gray-pilose on both surfaces: cymes terminal on the gray branches, many-fld.: calyx gray-hirsute, lobes linear; corolla-lobes deltoid-ovoid: fr. edible. Trop. Afr. Reported as intro. into S. Calif. but not successful. — S. Volkensii, Gilg. Tree, 30-40 ft. high: branchlets armed at the nodes with curved pungent spines: lvs. oblong or oblong-ovate, glabrous: cymes lax, many-fld., from the tip of the branches; sepals ovate; corolla-lobes ovate: fr. shaped like an orange, edible. Trop. Afr. Reported as intro. into S. Calif. but not successful. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Species

• Strychnos arborea
• Strychnos decussata
• Strychnos ignatia ("St. Ignatius bean"), is a closely related Asian shrub/tree.
• Strychnos nux-vomica (Strychnine tree), native to tropical Asia, is the source of the poison strychnine.
• The ripe seeds of Strychnos potatorum,[1][2], known as Therran or Nirmal,[3] can be ground and used as a coagulant to purify water; or they may be rubbed against the inside walls of the earthenware water containers.
• Strychnos spinosa (Lam.), commonly known as the Natal orange and Strychnos pungens, from Southern Africa; which are drought-tolerant and produce edible fruits.
• Strychnos toxifera is one of the 2 plant sources of the poison curare.

Gallery

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External links

• w:Strychnos. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Strychnos QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)