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: ''Passerina'' is a genus in the plant family Thymelaeaceae. They are ericoid bushes growing largely in fynbos and other Southern African scrub habitats. ==Overview and description== Passerina L., Sp. Pl. 559 (1753); Wright in FC. 5, 2: 9 (1915); Thoday in Kew Bull. 1924: 146, 387 (1924). Chymococca Meissn., Wright 1.c. 14, is a genus of plants in the family Thymelaeaceae.〔Dyer, R. Allen, The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”. ISBN 0 621 02854 1, 1975〕 Members of the genus ''Passerina'' are ericoid shrubs or shrublets, often with a tendency to having pendulous branches. Their leaves are markedly decussate. They are concave or closely involute, lined with woolly hairs, and cling to leafy stems without being large enough to cover them. This gives the plants a characteristic plaited or corded appearance.〔 The flowers of some species are borne in terminal spikes, whereas other species bear them in a four-flowered head. Bracts, usually broader than leaves and larger than the flowers, subtend each flower. This is one helpful distinction between specimens of ''Passerina'' and plants in the genus ''Struthiola''. The calyx has four sepals, forming a flask-shaped or subcylindrical tube. At the mouth the sepals spread into lobes that are shorter than the tube. There are no petals, but the lobes of the sepals are quite colourfully petal-like in many species. The ovary is ovoid with a single loculus containing a solitary ovule. The style is lateral, bearing a mop-like stigma that fills the mouth of the calyx-tube.〔 The calyx is persistent and encloses the fruit except in species such as ''Passerina ericoides'', in which the fruit is berry-like and expands until it protrudes out of the tube. A flower bears eight stamens of unequal length, the longest being the length of the calyx-lobes, but all protrude out of the calyx. The flowers lack of any noticeable scent, their protruding stamens, and their mop-like stigmata suggest their adaptation to wind pollination, in contrast to the petals and night scent of ''Struthiola''.〔 In most species the fruit is membranous, but some species, e.g. ''Passerina ericoides'' have a fleshy pericarp, forming a red berry attractive to birds and tortoises, hence one of its common names, "skilpadbessie", meaning "tortoise berry". However, that name also is applied to other plants, such as ''Nylandtia spinosa''. The seeds have a black, crustaceous testa and curved, beak-like micropyle. As in the related ''Struthiola'', the beak-like aspects of the fruit inspired the name "''Passerina''", which is from the Latin ''passerinus'', meaning "sparrow-like". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Passerina (plant)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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