APOCYNACEAE  

Scandent shrubs to tall, woody climbers. Leaves opposite, shortly petioled or subsessile, obovate, oblong-elliptic or elliptic, often abruptly acuminate; axillary glands 0; stipules 0. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, consisting of a panicle of few-many-flowered, contracted cymes. Flowers relatively small, inconspicuous, often greenish. Calyx small, divided almost to base, eglandular within or rarely with 5 minute glands; sepals 5, imbricate, oblong-lanceolate to ovate-oblong. Corolla salver-shaped; tube short, widest in middle, hairy without and within, with 5 ligulate scales in mouth, alternating with lobes; lobes spreading or reflexed, +/- as long as tube, linear to linear-oblong, overlapping to the right. Stamens 5, inserted above base of corolla tube; anthers 4-locular, sessile, conniving in a cone, sublinear, apiculate, shortly sagittate with foot of connective produced into a linear appendage which lies in a channel in the anther, with a cushion of hairs at base, polliniferous in upper part only. Disc cupular, 5-lobed or 5-partite. Ovary of 2 free carpels, shortly exserted and free from disc; style very short; stigma shortly spindle-shaped with 2-lobed apiculus. Mericarps 2, follicular, cylindric and slender to spindle-shaped. Seeds lanceolate, linear or oblong with apical tuft of hairs. x = 11 (1 report).

Small, succulent perennials, wholly glabrous, forming mats or +/- diffuse clumps. Stems 6-8-angled, procumbent or ascending, branching and re-branching, in part subterranean, entirely leafless, tesselate, tubercles convex or pyramidal, tipped with a soft green apiculus which dries and hardens with age. Flowers in fascicles of usually 5-15, from abbreviated, persistent peduncles near angles on upper and middle parts of stems, developing in quick succession. Sepals small, fleshy. Corolla +/- 9 mm in diameter with very shallow tube completely filled by corona, almost rotate, outside greyish white to pale green, glabrous except for tube and base of lobes which are sparsely covered with short, rigid, erect bristles; inside yellowish, with obtuse, conical papillae, each tipped with an acute seta; lobes spreading to reflexed, margins folded back, without cilia. Corona 2-seriate, seemingly arising from surface of flat corolla and extending much above it with staminiform lobes emarginate or incised into 10 almost equal segments; these ascending with the 5 styliform lobes or incumbent on gynostegium. Anthers 2-locular, horizontal on style head. Pollinia ellipsoidal with pellucid margin along outer edge. Follicles erect, slender, glabrous, smooth. x = 11 (1 report).

Tall lianas with stems up to 20 m or longer; roots tuberous. Leaves large, ovate, base cordate, apex caudate, petiolate, midgreen; interpetiolar stipules (colleters?) well developed, frill-like. Inflorescences many-flowered in axillary paniculate cymes. Flowers with gynostegium exserted from corolla. Sepals ovate. Corolla subrotate; lobes broadly ovate with obtuse apex, green outside, reddish brown to maroon inside with basal yellow-green nectariferous spot. Corona lobes arising at corolla mouth, free, fused with staminal filaments basally, broadly obcordate, white, with or without pinkish brown dorsal, corniculate segment. Stamens arising from base of corolla; filaments free; anthers 4-locular, triangular, glabrous, apically connivent and connate in a white cone over style head. Style head broadly angularly obovoid. Follicles narrowly ovoid, obtuse, widely to horizontally divergent. Seeds obliquely ovate, keeled on both faces, with apical tuft of hairs.

Perennial, sinistrorsely twining climbers or much-branched, often rigid to spinescent shrubs up to 1 m high, tomentose to glabrous, greenish, later becoming covered with grey, corky bark; with clear sap; rootstock with fibrous or fusiform roots. Leaves mostly opposite, erect to pendent, pubescent to glabrous, slightly fleshy to coriaceous; petiole 0.5-3 mm long; blade deltoid to linear, often with auriculate base, generally small. Inflorescence extra-axillary, finely pubescent, 1-15-flowered. Sepals divided nearly to base, +/- lanceolate, usually pubescent, green to pink-red. Corolla tube urceolate to tubular or campanulate, 5-angled with prominent ridges descending from bases of lobes, greenish yellow, green, pink or red, inside usually with 5 patches of stiff, downward-pointing golden-yellow hairs; lobes orbicular to deltoid, usually folded inwards along midrib, contorted and twisted, rarely spreading, usually connivent-erect to depressed into mouth of tube and closing it completely. Corolline corona present in some species, as five rounded lobes projecting from walls of corolla tube and alternating with patches of tawny hairs (hairs all round in sect. Haemax). Staminal corona 0. Gynostegium narrowing from base of gynostegial grooves to acute apex. Anthers with membranous apical appendage adpressed to style head, tipped with many intertwined hairs. Pollinia pendulous, mostly flat and long; corpuscle hard, black. Follicles fusiform, pendulous, tapering to long-acute point, glabrous. x = 10, 11.

Solitary succulents or forming small clumps up to 0.3 m tall, branching from base. Stems 1-many, decumbent to erect, cylindrical to clavate; tubercles mostly < 3 mm long, flattened, rounded, polygonal, covering stem and arranged roughly into 10-19 rows along stem, each tipped with small conical to dorsiventrally flattened persistent leaf < 1 mm long, usually sunken into depression near apex. Inflorescence glabrous, 1-30 per stem, arising all over stems though usually concentrated towards apex (rarely basal only), bearing 1-6(-15) flowers, forming peduncular patches with many narrowly deltoid bracts (often with lateral teeth near base) and basal bract seated on tubercle like those on stem; pedicel 0.5-3 mm long. Sepals 1.5-2.5 mm long, overlapping slightly at bases, occasionally with ciliate margins. Corolla shallowly campanulate, rotate or with strongly reflexed lobes, (5-)7-16 mm diam., deeply lobed; outside glabrous and smooth; inside glabrous, smooth to papillate, papillae dome-like to obtusely conical and usually tipped with a short apical hair; tube mostly shallow, up to 3 mm deep; lobes spreading, 3-6 mm long, ovate-deltoid to lanceolate, margins reflexed so convex above, eciliate. Corona 1.5-3 x 2-6 mm, 2-seriate, arising from staminal column, glabrous, +/- sessile at base of corolla tube; outer lobes erect, emarginate to deeply bifid into usually ascending lobules, laterally fused with bases of inner lobes and forming small pouch, dorsiventrally flattened and often channelled down inner surface; inner lobes adpressed to backs of anthers for most of anthers' length, sometimes exceeding them and rising up in centre in small column, dorsiventrally flattened, with dorsal process fused into cup with outer lobes or forming discrete, spreading, obtuse lobule in series with outer lobules. Anthers 2-locular, horizontal above style head, margins shrinking and exposing pollinia, rectangular. Pollinia D-shaped, longer than broad, pellucid margin twisting from outer edge onto dorsal surface. Follicles terete-fusiform obclavate, glabrous, smooth.