Trees or shrubs, without latex, glabrous; branches lined or angular. Leaves spiral, entire, petiolate; stipules free, small, thick, deciduous. Inflorescence pedunculate or rarely sessile, numerous-flowered, simple, in axil of foliage leaves or rarely in axil of bracts forming “panicles”; bracts persistent. Flowers pedicellate; sepals 5, unequal, imbricate, ± united, with margin entire to subentire; petals 5, white or greenish-white to cream or pale yellow, imbricate in bud, spreading. Ovary superior, sessile. Fruit capsular, often waxy or fleshy, with horn- or wing-like emergences. Seeds 1–3, glossy, red-brown, almost covered by a thin yellow aril, with fleshy endosperm.
Worldwide: 4 species in south-eastern Africa. Zimbabwe: 1 taxon. |
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