A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

GESNERIACEAE 431
126. PEDALIACEAE (Sesame or Linga Family)
Herbs with opposite leaves, or the upper ones alternate, entire, toothed,
or divided. Flowers irregular, axillary, solitaiy, and in terminal racemes,
rarely clustered, the pedicles short, the bracts none or very small. Calyx
deeply 4- or 5-lobed. Corolla tubular-ventricose, the limb obscurely 2-
lipped, 5-lobed, the lobes imbricate. Stamens 4, in 2 pairs. Ovary 2-
celled; style filiform; stigma shortly 2-lobed; ovules many, superposed.
Fruit a 2- or 4-celled capsule, dehiscent or indehiscent. Seeds exalbumi-
nous, small.
Genera 14, species about 50, a single representative in the Philippines.
1. SESAMUM Linnaeus
Erect herbs with entire, • toothed or lobed leaves. Flowers axillary,
solitary, or few and fascicled, short-pedicelled, pale or purplish. Calyx
small, 5-partite. Corolla tubular-ventricose, base somewhat inflated, the
limb 2-lipped, the lobes 5, rounded. Stamens 4, in 2 pairs, included; anthers
sagittate. Ovary 2-celled, early falsely 4-celled; ovules many. Capsule
oblong, loculicidally 2-valved, unarmed. Seeds numerous, obliquely oblong.
(From the Egyptian name of one of the species.)
Species about 12, Indian and African, the following widely distributed
in cultivation.
1. S. ORIENTALE L. (S. indicum DC). Linga (Tag.); Ajonjoli (Sp.)
Sesame.
An erect annual herb, 50 to 80 cm high, pubescent or puberulent. Leaves
oblong or ovate, 3 to 10 cm long, the lower ones often lobed, the middle ones
toothed, the uppermost subentire; petioles 1 to 5 cm long. Pedicels short,
solitary, or 2 or 3 in each axil. Sepals lanceolate, 6 to 7 mm long. Corolla
about 3 cm long, pubescent, whitish, or with purplish, red, or yellow marks.
Capsule about 2.5 cm long, oblong, erect, scabrid-pilose, splitting half-way
or quite to the base. (Fl. Filip. pi. 273.)
Widely cultivated in the Philippines, occasionally subspontaneous, fl.
most of the year. Probably a native of tropical Asia, but now found in
most tropical and subtemperate countries; certainly not a native of the
Philippines, although of prehistoric introduction,
127. GESNERIACEAE (Gesneria Family)
Herbs or undershrubs with opposite or alternate, entire or toothed leaves.
Flowers axillary or terminal, solitary, fascicled, or racemose, usually
bracteate and bracteolate. Flowers perfect, irregular, rarely regular,
small to large. Calyx 5-cleft. Coi'olla gamopetalous, the tube long or
short, subequally 5-lobed or 2-lipped and one lip 2-lobed, the other 3-lobed.
Stamens inserted on the corolla-tube, mostly in 2 pairs, often only 2 fertile.
Ovary superior 1- or 2-celIed; ovules many; style linear; ovules very
numerous. Fruit berry-lijce or capsular, indehiscent or dehiscent. Seeds
small, fusiform or ovoid, smooth.
Genera about 100, species more than 900, in most tropical countries,
about 11 genera and 70 or more species in the Philippines.
;