Source:
SSA
Description:
Shrubs or sometimes small trees up to +/- 4 m high, aromatic, with sessile glands on several parts, and hairs, if present, simple, sometimes gland-tipped. Leaves usually ternate, sometimes opposite, lanceolate, elliptic or ovate, usually pubescent. Flowers bracteate, pedicellate, bibracteolate, in 1-many-flowered cymes, solitary in axils of upper leaves; secreting nonvolatile oil for pollinators. Bracts paired at each inflorescence branching and subtending pedicels. Calyx 5-lobed, divided almost to base; lobes imbricate, posterior segment usually largest. Corolla bilabiate, 5-lobed; tube short, strongly pouched on anterior side; mouth slit-like, lips pressed together or slightly open; limb oblique, upper lip erect, 2-lobed, exterior in bud; lower lip 3-lobed. Stamens 4, didynamous, ascending, usually included; filaments arising at top of short, narrow, cylindrical base of corolla tube, swollen bases embracing top of ovary, rather thick; anterior pair basally twisted so all anthers face outwards; anthers bithecate; thecae divergent, confluent at maturity; staminode 1. Ovary bi- or sometimes trilocular, cylindrical or conical, glandular; placenta T-shaped in cross section, whole surface ovuliferous; ovules many; style long, slender, persistent; stigma small. Fruit a woody, ovoid, septicidal capsule, surrounded by calyx. Seeds many, fusiform; testa deeply reticulate. x = 20 (1 report).
Distribution:
Species 3, sthn Afr., mostly eastern half, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and Eastern Cape, from +/- Woodbush, along Drakensberg to Hogsback; montane, usually near streams and on forest margins.
Classification:
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