RUBIACEAE  

Small trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, petiolate, in equal pairs or at flower-bearing nodes unequal, or even one reduced to a deciduous scale; domatia sometimes present; stipules basally +/- triangular, erect, acute to subulate, often deciduous. Flowers bisexual, pedicellate, 5-merous, in unilateral, apparently axillary inflorescences at every other node; inflorescences lax or condensed cymes up to 70 mm long, few- to many-flowered, subsessile or pedunculate; bracts small, often deciduous. Calyx: tube ovoid or turbinate; tubular part of limb well-developed; lobes reduced or at least not over 3 mm long. Corolla white, yellow or green, the central part sometimes red; tube cylindric, with throat hairy; lobes contorted, overlapping to the left, acute. Stamens exserted; filaments arising in upper part of throat; anthers sagittate; pollen grains simple. Ovary 2(3)-locular, each locule containing a peltate hemispherical many-ovuled placenta; style exserted, developed into an oblong striate club of 2 adhering lobes. Fruit globose, small, marked with a circular scar left by the deciduous calyx-limb. Seeds many.