genus descriptions: SSTAs

Annual herbs. Leaves paired, shortly petiolate; stipules small, with several deltoid segments from a short base. Flowers bisexual, small, dimorphic, some flowers with anthers included and style exserted and others completely vice versa, in small sessile terminal heads. Calyx: tube short; lobes small, 3 or 4, sometimes 1 enlarged and rest minute, or all minute. Corolla: tube narrowly funnel-shaped; lobes 3 or 4, oblong; throat hairy. Ovary 2-locular; ovules solitary in each locule, pendulous; style filiform; stigma bifid, lobes filiform. Fruit ovoid, indehiscent, but longitudinally grooved and where fruit breaks off a little cup is left being the persistent woody flanged pedicel; between this flange and base of fruit masses of raphides present. Seeds narrowly ellipsoid or ovate in outline, strongly compressed.

Evergreen shrubs or small trees, sometimes with spines beside buds. Leaves alternate, simple, thick and leathery; petioles winged and usually jointed at junction with blades. Flowers bisexual or male, solitary or in racemes. Petals 4, or 5, white, sometimes reflexed. Stamens 20-40, at least 4 times as many as petals, joined in groups. Fruit a segmented, aromatic, gland-dotted berry with a thick leathery rind and a pulp of small juicy sacs.

Scandent shrubs, often with hairy stems. Leaves paired, petiolate; domatia absent or present as hairy tufts in axils of lateral and sometimes tertiary nerves beneath; bacterial nodules absent; stipules with 3-15 fimbriae or with a single lobe. Flowers bisexual, 4- or 5(6)-merous, sessile or pedicellate in pyramidal to racemiform or hemispherical to flat-topped panicles, terminal on the main or short lateral branches, sessile to pedunculate (the presence of rudimentary leaves frequently renders this character ambiguous); bracts and bracteoles present, either conspicuous and exceeding calyx or inconspicuous. Calyx: tube ovoid to campanulate; limb tube usually short, slightly wider than tube, bearing 4 or 5(6) ovate, subulate, filiform to linear or triangular lobes. Corolla white or cream, usually small, salver-shaped; tube cylindrical to funnel-shaped, glabrous to sparsely pubescent inside; lobes 4 or 5(6), contorted in bud, spreading or reflexed. Stamens arising in mouth of tube, exserted, or at least partly so; filaments short; anthers attached near base or occasionally near middle, usually shortly apiculate. Disc fleshy, glabrous. Ovary 2(3)-locular (or incompletely so); ovules solitary, inserted on a small fleshy placenta ascending from base of ovary; style slender, greatly or less often scarcely exceeding corolla tube, glabrous or nearly so or less often densely pubescent just above base; stigma +/- exserted, fusiform, clavate or broadly elliptic to globose, entire or rarely 2- or 3-lobed. Fruit 1-locular, frequently orange to red, drupaceous, spherical, somewhat fleshy with a chartaceous endocarp; calyx limb persistent or less often deciduous. Seed 1, globose, filling the cell, hilum basal, irregular; testa thin, reticulate; albumen horny, deeply ruminate; embryo curved.

Shrubs or small trees; branches pubescent when young. Leaves opposite, petiolate, membranous, restricted to new growth at apex of stems; domatia present as white hairy tufts in axils of nerves; stipules interpetiolar, ovate-triangular, with colleters and silky hairs inside. Flowers bisexual, precocious, solitary, terminal on short lateral branches (but may be exceeded by the development of an axillary branch), sessile, large. Calyx 6-8-ribbed, covered with very short fleshy hairs when young, which soon erode to reveal a rather flaky corky underlayer; tube campanulate; limb entire in bud, acuminate, rupturing into 2 or 3 lobes at anthesis, densely covered with silky hairs with large interspersed colleters inside. Corolla: tube short in proportion to the lobes, cylindric to funnel-shaped; lobes 8-11, narrowly oblong, spreading, overlapping to the right in bud (as seen from outside). Stamens: anthers 8-11, sessile, attached near base, inserted at throat, exserted, +/- two-thirds the length of the corolla lobes, linear, shortly acuminate; pollen grains simple. Disc annular. Ovary 4-locular (or ? incompletely so); septa thinly membranous, adhering to the placentas; placentas 4, elongate, fleshy, attached at apex to base of style; ovules many, impressed on placentas; style slightly swollen, glabrous; stigmatic club exserted, cylindric, 2-winged, bifid at apex with each lobe emarginate. Fruit large, globular, smooth, 1-locular; calyx limb caducous; pericarp thick. Seeds many, embedded in pulpy placental tissue, sublenticular; testa very thin, finely rugulose; endosperm entire, horny; embryo straight.