Source:
SSA
Description:
Herbs or small undershrubs, erect or suberect, glandular-pubescent. Leaves alternate, linear to ovate, entire, bases often attenuate. Flowers solitary, axillary, pedicellate, often bibracteolate. Calyx 5-lobed; lobes narrowly lanceolate. Corolla 5-lobed; tube much longer than calyx, funnel-shaped; lobes flat, spreading, subequal, shorter than tube, upper lobes external in bud. Stamens 2, anterior, included; filaments filiform, arising above base of corolla tube; anthers transverse, glabrous or hairy, with the thecae confluent; staminodes 0. Nectary annular. Ovary bilocular; ovules many; style filiform, subclavate. Fruit a capsule, ovoid or cylindrical, subacuminate, loculicidal and septicidal; valves bend marginally inwards on dehiscence, exposing placentiferous column. Seeds small, many, ovoid or cylindrical, striate, rugose or not.
Distribution:
Species +/- 10, mostly Africa, extending to Arabian Peninsula and India; 6 in sthn Afr., mostly Namibia, also Botswana, Northern Province (Messina) and Northern Cape (Kalahari Gemsbok Park and Richtersveld).
Classification:
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