RUBIACEAE  

Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs with erect or procumbent, glabrescent to stiffly hairy stems from a fibrous rootstock. Leaves paired; stipules small, deltoid, entire to fimbriated. Inflorescences few- to many-flowered cymose clusters at apices of main shoots. Flowers bisexual, small, never dimorphic. Calyx: tube ovoid or urceolate, often bristly hairy; lobes 5 or 6, equal or unequal, spathulate, filiform or lanceolate. Corolla: tube narrowly cylindric to funnel-shaped; lobes 4-6(7), deltoid to lanceolate, suberect. Disc cylindric, or consisting of 2 separate cones. Stamens 4-6, far exserted on slender filaments; anthers narrowly oblong, +/- medifixed. Ovary 2-locular; ovules many, on placentas on central partition. Fruit a characteristic globose capsule splitting in a plane at right angles to the central partition into 2 valves of which 1 usually remains attached to the rachis. Seeds small, subglobose, reticulately pitted, brownish.

Perennial herbs or subshrubs. Leaves opposite, petiolate, lanceolate; stipules ovate to lanceolate. Inflorescence terminal, globose to oblong, involucrate heads or dense terete spikes. Flowers bisexual, small, white. Calyx: tube campanulate to obovoid; lobes 4-6, spreading, hispid or ciliate, persistent. Corolla funnel-shaped or subcampanulate, not much longer than calyx, throat hairy; lobes 4-6, ovate or lanceolate, spreading, valvate in bud. Stamens 4-6, arising in throat of corolla; filaments short; anthers included, linear, glabrous, fixed above base. Disc cushion-shaped or raised. Ovary 2-locular; ovules solitary, erect; style slender, glabrous, with 2 short obtuse branches. Fruit small, ovoid or subglobose; pyrenes 2, planoconvex, crustaceous. Seeds smooth; testa membranous; endosperm fleshy.

Suffrutescent herbs with stems from a woody rhizome, subshrubs, shrubs or small trees; foliage, inflorescences and young shoots characteristically covered with a dense velvety tomentum. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3 or 4, subsessile or shortly petiolate, usually markedly discolorous; stipules connate in lower part, drawn out into a linear apex, eventually deciduous. Inflorescences axillary, dense, usually opposite, with flowers few to many in +/- globose cymes, or 1-few-flowered fascicles; bracts and bracteoles present, often fairly conspicuous. Flowers fairly small, but large in T. rhodesiacum, subsessile to shortly pedunculate. Calyx lobes 5, mostly erect and linear to linear-lanceolate, less often ovate to oblong-triangular. Corolla apiculate in bud; green, yellow or white, densely hairy outside; tube cylindric, glabrous, occasionally hairy at throat, with a ring of deflexed hairs within; lobes reflexed, usually apiculate. Stamens inserted at throat; anthers +/- exserted. Ovary 4-5(6)-locular with one pendulous ovule per locule; style slender, usually exserted; pollen presenter cylindric or coroniform, sulcate and 4-5-lobulate. Fruit subglobose, usually crowned by persistent calyx, velvety or infrequently +/- sparsely hairy, with 3-5 pyrenes, or fruit oblique and reduced to 1 pyrene.

Sparsely branched shrubs. Leaves opposite, equal; petiole canaliculate; lamina obovate or elliptic, acuminate, cuneate at base, coriaceous, glabrous, +/- discolorous; stipules ovate or elliptic, pointed, broader than branch, coriaceous, glabrous, longitudinally striate. Inflorescences many-flowered clusters or small, short-peduncled cymes on old wood, minutely puberulous; bracts and bracteoles absent; buds pointed, subacuminate, black when dry. Flowers bisexual, 5-merous, heterostylous. Calyx cup-shaped, truncate. Corolla: tube cylindric, widening slightly towards base and towards apex, 2-3 times as long as lobes, bearded in throat; lobes valvate in bud, narrowly triangular. Stamens in short-styled flowers arising shortly beneath throat of corolla tube, exserted; anthers apiculate. Disc annular, slightly 5-angular, flat to slightly convex, glabrous. Ovary 2-locular at base, 4-locular in upper portion; ovules many; style glabrous, in brevistylous flowers included; stigmas 2, free. Fruit a fleshy, globose, red berry. Seeds globose.

Slender, small to fairly tall trees, in habit somewhat reminiscent of Carica papaya, with straight, erect, usually unbranched stems bearing a few unbranched, slender, caducous branches in whorls of 3-5 mainly near top, each branch bearing 3 leaves at apex; scars left by fallen leaves oval, long visible. Leaves very large, often exceeding 1