4953.000 Corchorus L.

Herbs or small shrubs, sometimes with annual stems from a woody rootstock, with simple or stellate hairs. Stipules lateral, usually setaceous or subacute. Leaves alternate, usually with a long bristle on either side near the base. Flowers in bracteate pedunculate cymes, ± opposite the leaves. Sepals 4-5, usually narrow. Petals yellow. Stamens 7 to many. Ovary 2-5-locular. Fruit (in ours) a cylindric, rarely narrowly ovoid (kirkii), capsule, loculicidally 2-5-valved.

Derivation of name: from the Greek: khorkhorus, referring to jute, the fibre made from plants of this genus.

Worldwide: 100 species in the tropics.

Zimbabwe: 13 taxa.