4966.000 Grewia L.

Small trees or shrubs, sometimes scrambling or climbing. Stipules lateral. Leaves petiolate, alternate, simple, serrate or rarely entire, 3-7-veined from the base. Flowers in terminal or axillary panicles or in leaf-opposed or axillary umbel-like cymes. Sepals 5, stellately hairy, coloured inside like the petals. Petals 5, most often yellow, less often white and rarely purple (Grewia occidentalis), usually with a nectar-bearing claw or gland at the base. Stamens numerous. Ovary 2-4-locular. Fruit indehiscent, without bristles, a (1-)2-4-lobed drupe with (1-)2-4 pyrenes.

Derivation of name: for Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712), British botanist and physiologist.

Worldwide: 150 species in warm parts of the Old World.

Zimbabwe: 27 taxa.