Otomeria

Annual or perennial, erect, subprostrate or twining herbs with mostly hairy stems. Leaves paired; stipules with base divided into several narrow segments. Flowers bisexual, small and white or rather large and coloured, monomorphic or dimorphic, in cymose heads, which in fruit develop into a long simple spike with fruits geminately arranged and a solitary remotely placed flower in axil at base of spike. Calyx: tube ovoid or elongate-oblong; lobes 5, unequal: 1-3 foliaceous and larger than the rest, alternating with small colleters. Corolla: tube long and narrow, with a markedly ovoid-oblong apical dilation in long-styled forms; throat densely hairy; lobes in small-flowered species elliptic, but in large-flowered species broader, ovate to orbicular, narrowing to base where lobes are often connate for a short distance. Stamens completely exserted in short-styled forms. Style exserted in long-styled forms, stigma bifid with filiform lobes; anthers completely included in apical dilation of corolla tube. Capsule oblong, compressed, ribbed, opening by apical valves and also frequently splitting longitudinally. Seeds small, reticulate.