Bertiera

Small trees or shrubs, rarely lianas. Leaves shortly petiolate; petioles normally channelled above; blades thin or scarcely coriaceous, mid- and lateral nerves usually prominent beneath; stipules persistent, usually connate above nodes for a short distance. Flowers moderate in size or small, borne in terminal, spicate thyrsoid panicles, scorpioid cymes or spherical compact heads. Calyx with limb produced above tube, cup-shaped and frequently wider than tube, truncate or 5-toothed or -lobed. Corolla with hairy throat, often with walls of tube toughened or thick; tube exceeding calyx-limb; lobes (4)5, usually acuminate or apiculate, contorted in bud. Stamens: anthers (4)5, subsessile, attached by very short filaments near base, included, linear, sagittate or bilobed at base, connective extended into an apiculate apex. Disc glabrous, fleshy, cup-shaped, or annular. Ovary 2-locular with numerous ovules inserted on a thickened placenta; stigma borne on style +/- club-shaped, formed from 2 flattened appressed branches (seldom separating), with 10 membranous linear vanes which fit between anthers in bud. Fruit indehiscent, ovoid or globose, often coriaceous; calyx persistent; pedicels sometimes accrescent. Seeds many, red-brown to black, angular, rugulose or granulose.