Emicocarpus

Perennial herbs with slender, terete, prostrate stems minutely puberulous along one line when young. Leaves petiolate, hastate, deeply, almost palmately incised into 5 or 7 very narrowly triangular lobes, middle lobe twice as long or more than lateral ones; petiole canaliculate above. Inflorescences few-flowered, axillary umbels on long peduncles minutely pilose along one line. Flowers pedicellate; bracteoles minute, subulate. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, with solitary interposed finger-shaped colleters. Corolla rotate, with glabrous lobes overlapping to the right. Corona triple: outer one of tongue-shaped, obtuse lobes opposite the petals; middle one of 10 paired, slightly longer and narrower lobes alternating with lobes of outer corona; lobes of inner corona similar to those of outer corona but somewhat smaller and opposite stamens and slightly adnate to corolla. Stamens ending in a 2-lobed, membranous connective; corpuscle very small; translator arms twisted. Style head swollen, ellipsoid, raised well above gynostegium. Ovary with two ovules. Follicles resembling fruit of Emex : with 3 spines, 2 lateral and 1 apical; pedicel short and spiny. Seed horseshoe-shaped, brown.