Source:
SSA
Description:
Herbs, undershrubs, shrubs, or small trees, sometimes climbing, unarmed or spiny. Leaves alternate or paired, entire, lobed or pinnatisect. Flowers in extra-axillary, dichotomous, racemose or umbellate cymes or in terminal panicles. Calyx (4)5-10-toothed or -lobed. Corolla often rotate, (4)5(6)-lobed, sometimes with campanulate tube. Stamens 5(6) arising at varying heights of corolla tube; filaments linear or oblong, shorter than anthers, rarely rudimentary; anthers large, oblong or lanceolate, dehiscing by pores or longitudinal slits. Disc inconspicuous. Ovary 2(3 or 4)-locular with many ovules in each locule; style terete, with capitate or bifid stigma. Fruit a globose berry. Seeds biconvex. x = 12 (23, 41) (aneuploids, high polyploidy, B-chromosomes).
Distribution:
Species +/- 1400, cosmopolitan, mainly in tropics; sthn Afr. +/- 25 indigenous, widespread in all regions, +/- 15 introduced species have become widespread weeds.
Classification:
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