genus descriptions: SSTAs

Annuals or short-lived perennials with tough, wiry stems. Leaves opposite, +/-linear, entire. Inflorescences spiciform to capitate or cymose-fastigiate; bracts persistent, each subtending 1 or 2 flowers; bracteoles and perianth falling with fruit. Flowers bisexual. Tepals 5, indurate and +/-coalescent at base in fruit, glabrous to sparingly floccose in lower half. Stamens 5, shortly fused at base, alternating with fringed staminodes; anthers 2-thecous. Ovary uni-ovulate, glabrous to thinly hairy; style slender; stigma capitate. Capsule thin-walled, indehiscent.

High-scandent perennials with opposite branches. Leaves opposite, broadly ovate to lanceolate-ovate, entire; indumentum of jointed, barbellate hairs. Inflorescence a broad panicle with spike-like branches; each persistent bract subtending a central, bisexual, fertile and 2 lateral sterile flowers, consisting of several hair-like appendages, elongating and imparting to infructescence branches a Clematis -like look. Fertile flowers bisexual, with 2 greatly accrescent bracteoles. Tepals 5, free, +/-pilose. Stamens 5, very shortly fused into a disc-like rim at extreme base, alternating with very small pseudostaminodes; anthers 2-thecous. Ovary uni-ovulate, glabrous; style slender; stigma capitate. Capsule thin-walled, indehiscent, enclosed by and falling with persistent perianth and bracteoles.

Subshrubs, shrubs or small trees. Leaves pinnatifid or lobate to rarely entire, margin often spiny. Inflorescences +/-dense, short to long terminal spikes; bracts and bracteoles present. Calyx divided to base into 4 sepals; anterior and posterior sepal much larger than lateral ones. Corolla 1-lipped; tube very short; anterior lip 3-5-lobed with middle lobe outside in bud; posterior lip represented by a thickened sinus at level of insertion of stamens. Androecium : stamens 4, +/-equal; filaments glabrous; anthers 1-thecous, oblong, muticous, fringed with white hairs. Gynoecium : ovary 2-locular, with 2 ascending ovules per locule; style mostly glabrous, bifid at apex. Capsule ellipsoid, woody, shiny brown, 2-4-seeded. Seeds discoid, glabrous.

Unarmed evergreen trees. Leaves once-pinnate; leaflets alternate, rarely opposite, usually emarginate at apex, marked with numerous pellucid gland dots (visible at least before leaflets have thickened with maturity), without any marginal swelling near base. Inflorescences of terminal or axillary racemes or panicles. Flowers bisexual, distichously arranged along inflorescence axes; bracteoles small, not enclosing flower buds, soon falling off. Sepals 4, very narrowly imbricate, almost valvate, fulvous-tomentose inside. Petals 5, subequal or one somewhat narrower than rest, imbricate, clawed, with a crinkled lamina. Stamens 10; filaments tomentose below, one of them free, rest connate below into a short sulcate tube; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary stipitate, usually tomentose but sometimes only so on the stipe; ovules several to numerous; style elongate, coiled when young, with a capitate stigma. Pods flattened, woody, apparently indehiscent, short, warted or smooth outside. Seeds 1-4, black or brown, exareolate, with a small basal aril.