Source:
SSA
Description:
Annual or perennial herbs or sometimes subshrubs, with subterete or quadrangular branches. Leaves opposite, sessile, usually linear, mostly 1-nerved; stipules with 2-several fimbriae or rarely reduced to a simple lobe. Flowers never heterostylous; in terminal corymbs or panicles, rarely solitary; bracts slender or filamentous. Calyx 4(5)-partite; segments ovate-triangular to subulate. Corolla 4(5)-lobed; lobes suberect or spreading, papillose above; cream, shades of brown, white or pinkish mauve; tube slender, cylindric below, slightly expanded towards mouth, with flattened, obtuse hairs within. Stamens included or only anther tips exserted; anthers sessile. Ovary 2-locular, with many ovules in each locule, attached to shield-like, shortly-stalked placentas attached below middle of central partition; style usually much shorter, but sometimes only slightly lower than anthers; stigma simple or bifid. Capsule bilocular, globose or ellipsoid, scarcely beaked. Seeds many, angular, somewhat alveolate. x = 9 (polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species 60, Old World tropics; 15 in sthn Afr., absent from Western Cape.
Classification:
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