Suffrutices with stems arising from a woody rhizome. Stipules triangular, usually caudate. Leaves opposite or (in ours) mostly in whorls of 3-4. Flowers axillary, in cymes or fascicles, sometimes borne at lower leafless nodes. Calyx limb-tube ± obsolete; lobes 5, erect. Corolla: tube cylindric; lobes valvate, reflexed about equal in length to the tube. Ovary 2-locular; with 1 pendulous ovule 1 per loculus. Pollen presenter deeply 2-lobed. Fruit spherical or pyriform containing 2 pyrenes. Worldwide: 4 species in tropical and South Africa Zimbabwe: 1 taxon. |
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