genus descriptions: SSTAs

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves opposite or rarely ternate, sessile or petiolate; blades usually entirely glabrous, less often pubescent beneath, very rarely puberulous above; domatia and bacterial nodules absent; stipules with a truncate to triangular limb, usually connate for most of the length, bearing a short or long, cuspidate or aristate lobe. Flowers bisexual, usually fragrant, 4(5)-merous, few to many, usually borne in triads in terminal, sessile to long-pedunculate +/- lax cymes or rarely spherical heads; branches of inflorescence opposite and articulate or less often absent; pedicels present or absent; bracts stipule-like; bracteoles present or rarely absent. Calyx often reddish in colour, glabrous to shortly pilose or less often pubescent; tube ovoid; limb short, sometimes almost absent, usually as wide as tube, truncate or more usually 4(5)-toothed, shortly lobed or occasionally with well-developed lobes. Corolla white, yellow, pink or red, glabrous outside or rarely pilose; tube cylindric, usually slender, only slightly widened at throat, naked or somewhat bearded at throat; lobes contorted in bud, spreading or reflexing, lanceolate, narrowly elliptic or ovate, much shorter than or occasionally equalling the tube in length. Stamens arising at mouth of tube, exserted and spreading or erect in mature flowers; filaments very short; anthers attached near base, linear, apiculate and sagittate, twisted when dehisced. Disc annular, fleshy. Ovary 2-locular, small; placentas fleshy attached near top of septum; ovules solitary, immersed in placentas; style slender, equalling or slightly exceeding corolla tube, glabrous or sometimes pilose; stigma exserted, 2-lobed; lobes always completely separate when mature, usually recurved, equalling or a little shorter than anthers. Fruit a drupe, usually red (dull brown in dry specimens), spherical or 2-lobed, slightly fleshy or coriaceous, containing 1 or 2, 1-seeded, thin-walled pyrenes; calyx limb persistent. Seeds frequently undeveloped, rusty brown in colour, hemispherical with a deep circular excavation in centre of the plane ventral face, convex dorsal face not sculptured but sometimes with minute protuberances which are occasionally shiny; endosperm entire, cartilaginous; embryo dorsal, curved; cotyledons foliaceous; radicle pointing downwards.

Small erect shrubs, invariably turning blackish on drying and with distinctly discolorous leaves. Leaves very shortly petiolate, elliptic to lanceolate, rather thick, closely placed, lateral nerves invisible or very obscure; stipule-sheath usually hairy, divided into several subulate fimbriae. Flowers heterostylous, small in many-flowered, dense, terminal corymbs or panicles. Calyx: lobes 4, triangular or lanceolate, often with fimbriae between. Corolla shortly subcylindric, slightly widened above; lobes 4; throat glabrous or sparsely hairy inside. Stamens well exserted in short-styled flowers. Ovary 2-locular; ovules few on peltate placentas; style filiform; stigma lobes subglobose. Capsule depressed hemispherical, produced into a conical beak which splits loculicidally and septicidally into 4 diverging valves. Seeds few, much compressed, elliptic or oblong, sometimes subangular and often slightly winged at both ends or all round, reticulate.

Erect or prostrate annual or perennial herbs with 4-angled stems. Leaves opposite; blades linear-lanceolate to ovate or broadly elliptic; stipules connate with petioles to form a fimbriated sheath. Flowers not heterostylous or only slightly so, in dense, spherical, sessile, terminal or axillary heads. Calyx: tube obconic, obovoid or subglobose; teeth 4-5, 2 often longer, sometimes with minute supplementary ones between. Corolla salver-shaped or funnel-shaped; tube often with an internal ring of hairs; lobes 4; throat glabrous or hairy. Stamens arising in throat; anthers included or exserted. Disc fleshy. Ovary 2(3)-locular; ovules solitary in each locule, attached by the middle to septum; style short or long, divided into 2 short, linear branches. Fruit a thin circumscissile capsule, the upper part splitting off together with calyx lobes, septum persistent. Seeds oblong or globose, ventral face divided into 4 distinct areas; endosperm fleshy.

Trees, shrubs or less often lianes, with mostly glabrous, less often hairy or tomentose stems. Leaves opposite or rarely in whorls of 3, sometimes only 1 at flowering nodes; stipules leafy, undivided, free or forming a sheath with the petioles. Flowers generally heterostylous, bisexual or rarely unisexual, in tight capitula, flowers usually joined, at least by bases of calyces, capitula sometimes bearing single, large, coloured bracts or occasionally many smaller bracts; capitula 1-several at nodes, frequently arranged in umbels, pedunculate or rarely sessile. Calyx: tube urceolate or hemispherical, limb short, truncate or obscurely to distinctly toothed, persistent. Corolla coriaceous, funnel-shaped or salver-shaped; lobes (4)5(-7), valvate; throat glabrous or pilose. Stamens (4)5(7), arising in throat; filaments short; anthers and style included or exserted. Disc swollen or annular. Ovary 2-4-locular, sometimes imperfectly so; style with 2 short to long linear branches; ovules solitary in locules, attached to septum below middle or near base, ascending, anatropous or amphitropous. Fruit syncarpous (very rarely scarcely so), succulent, containing several pyrenes; pyrenes cartilaginous or bony, 1-seeded or joined into a 2-4-locular woody structure. Seeds obovoid or reniform, with a membranous testa and fleshy endosperm.