Source:
SSA
Description:
Robust herbs, undershrubs or shrubs with herbaceous branches, rarely woody. Leaves ovate or elliptic, usually petiolate. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, thyrsoid or spicate; bracts and bracteoles small, lanceolate or spatulate-obovate, sometimes enclosing calyx. Calyx regular, hairy or with stalked glands; lobes 5, lanceolate; tube shorter than lobes. Corolla 2-lipped, glabrous or hairy; upper lip shortly 2-lobed, rugula distinct; lower lip shortly 3-lobed, usually with a distinct keel on back and 2 raised ridges on palate; aestivation ascending; tube shorter than lobes, subcampanulate. Androecium: fertile stamens 2, arising near base of corolla tube or in upper cylindric portion, subexserted; filaments terete; anthers 2-thecous; thecae superposed and usually clearly separated with upper theca usually attached at right angles to filament, muticous; staminodes 0. Pollen spheroidal, 3-porate; surface reticulate. Disc annular, unusually large. Gynoecium: ovary with 1 or 2 ovules in each locule, ellipsoid; style terete, subexserted, or filiform and exserted, running in rugula; style branches 2, equal, very short, broader than long. Capsule ellipsoid, stipitate, with inelastic placental bases. Seeds +/- quadrate, surface rough and convolute or rugose.
Distribution:
Species +/- 50, Old World tropics; 15 in sthn Afr., Swaziland, Lesotho and mainly northern and eastern provinces of South Africa.
Classification:
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