Erect or scrambling or twining, monoecious (rarely dioecious) perennial herbs or shrubs, with stinging hairs. Leaves alternate, stipulate, often cordate. Flowers in racemes, usually mostly male with 1-2 females at the base. Bracts conspicuous, persistent. Petals 0. Male flowers with 3 sepals and 3 stamens. Female flowers with 3 or 6 pinnate or palmate sepals, becoming enlarged in fruit. Ovary 3-locular. Derivation of name: named after the German botanist Hieronymus Bock, whose Latin name was Tragus, 1498-1554. Worldwide: 100 species in tropical and warm areas Zimbabwe: 14 taxa. Insects associated with this genus:
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Species | FZ divisions | Content |
benthamii Baker | N,S | |
brevipes Pax | N,W | Description, Image |
brevipes-benthamii-okanyu intermediates | N,S | |
dioica Sond. | S | |
furialis Bojer | E | Description, Image |
gardneri Prain | W,C | Description, Image |
incisifolia Prain | E,S | |
kirkiana Müll. Arg. | N,W,C,S | Description, Image |
mazoensis Radcl.-Sm.[End][DD] | N | Description, Image |
okanyua Pax | N,W,C,E,S | Description, Image |
plukenetii Radcl.-Sm. | E | |
prionoides Radcl.-Sm. | W,C,E,S | |
rhodesiae Pax | N,C | |
tenuifolia Benth. | E |