Ceropegia sect. Huernia (R.Br.) Bruyns, S. African J. Bot. 112: 423 (2017).

Alharbi, Samah A. & Al-Qthanin, Rahmah N., 2021, Taxonomic revision of Ceropegia sect. Huernia (Asclepiadoideae, Apocynaceae) in Saudi Arabia with three new combinations, PhytoKeys 174, pp. 47-80 : 47

Ceropegia sect. Huernia (R.Br.) Bruyns, S. African J. Bot. 112: 423 (2017).

Huernia ≡ Huernia R.Br., Mem. Wern. Nat. Hist. Soc.: 22 (1810). Lectotype

Huernia campanulata (Masson) Haw. (designated by White and Sloane (1937))

Ceropegia clavigera = Ceropegia clavigera (Jacq.) Bruyns.

Diagnostic features.

Perennial leafless dwarf succulent herb, mat-forming rarely rhizomatous, sometimes prostrate or pendulous succulent. Branches glabrous, smooth, 4- to 16-angled. Leaves reduced mainly to soft point without stipular structures. The leaf-rudiments are borne on a raised tubercle which is a much swollen leaf-base. These tubercles are arranged in rows along the branch and joined towards their bases into angles along the branch with a groove between vertical rows of tubercles. Inflorescence glabrous, usually only one per branch, arising mainly in lower half of branch between tubercles, 1-10 flowered. Corolla urceolate to campanulate to subrotate, shallowly lobed. Staminal corona in two well-separated series, inner pressed to backs of anthers mostly exceeding them and meeting in centre, often with prominent transversely-rounded dorsal projections. Outer spreading along base of tube, discrete to fused into spreading disc with fleshy tubercle beneath guide-rail obscuring entrance to small nectarial cavity. Anthers horizontal on top of style-head, margins shrinking back to expose pollinia, rectangular. Pollinium ellipsoidal, longer than broad, insertion-crest exactly along outer edge, caudicle attached with broad cupular pad to base. Follicles erect, terete-fusiform, obclavate, slender, consisting of two horns diverging at 30-60°, longitudinally mottled with narrow broken purple stripes, glabrous, smooth ( Bruyns 2005, 2014; Bruyns et al. 2017).