Source:
SSA
Description:
Shrubs or small trees, sometimes scandent; spines, if present, straight. Leaves paired, petiolate; domatia either 0, pit-like or present as tufts of hair; shortly sheathing, apiculate or aristate, glabrous or pubescent within. Flowers pedicellate or not; in pedunculate to subsessile, few- to many-flowered cymes; bracteoles inconspicuous. Calyx with 4 or 5 teeth, rarely lobed, saucer- or basin-shaped. Corolla 4- or 5-lobed, white or yellowish, glabrous; lobes reflexed, obtuse, acute or shortly apiculate; tube broadly cylindrical, with or without a ring of deflexed hairs inside, often pubescent at throat. Stamens 4 or 5, arising in corolla mouth; filaments usually shorter than anthers. Disc annular, glabrous or pubescent. Ovary 2(-4)-locular, with a single pendulous ovule in each locule; style slender, shortly exceeding corolla tube, glabrous; stigmatic knob +/- spherical, point of attachment distinctly recessed, 2(3)-lobed. Fruit a (1)2(3)-seeded drupe with pyrenes ellipsoid to ovoid or obovoid, often flattened on ventral face, with a shallow crest extending to apex, usually rugulose. x = 11 (aneuploids, polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species 52, tropical areas of the Old World; 13 in sthn Afr, widespread in the eastern regions but absent from Namibia, Northern Cape and Western Cape.
Classification:
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