APOCYNACEAE  

Perennial herbs, with tuberous rootstock or fusiform roots; sap milky. Leaves often sessile. Flowers in umbels; umbels sessile or pedunculate, few to several, lateral at nodes, or a single, terminal umbel. Sepals 5, sometimes with scales within sinuses. Corolla 5-lobed nearly to base, with lobes erect to reflexed. Corona of 5 lobes arising from staminal column; lobes fleshy, +/- as thick as broad, sometimes bifid or obscurely 3-lobed, keelless or with one longitudinal median keel on inner face, never cucullate nor complicate nor with process from inner face. Staminal column arising from base of corolla. Anthers 2-locular, terminated by a membranous, ovate or transversely oblong appendage, rarely spurred at base; pollinia pendulous, caudicles short. Follicles smooth or with slender processes. Seeds oblong, convex on one side, depressed on reverse, with rim tubercled and with apical tuft of hairs.

Perennial herbs with tuberous rootstock, usually single-stemmed, erect. Leaves shortly petiolate, penninerved. Flowers in sessile or pedunculate umbels, lateral at nodes and terminal. Sepals 5, with scales within base. Corolla deeply 5-lobed; lobes with revolute margin. Corona arising from base of staminal column, of 5 lobes; lobes dorsally flattened, deeply trilobulate; lobules sinulate, ovate-oblong or side lobules linear-oblong and middle one usually curved. Anthers 2-locular, with a membranous appendage; pollinia pendulous, ovate or somewhat quadrate; caudicles shorter than pollinia; corpuscle with narrow, membranous wings. Style head flat, 5-angled. Follicles with short, spine-like processes.

Twining or sometimes erect. Leaves petiolate, oblong, linear, ovate, or lanceolate. Flowers in a pedunculate or sessile, umbel-like cyme, or in clusters scattered along a single-jointed axis, or along branches of a dichotomously branched cyme or panicle, lateral at nodes. Sepals +/- as long as corolla tube, sometimes with glands within base. Corolla 5-lobed to more than halfway; tube saucer-shaped. Corona usually of 5 tubercles adnate to or radiating from near base of staminal column, usually not exceeding filaments. Anthers 2-locular, tipped by small, membranous appendage; pollinia globose or ellipsoid, suberect, horizontal or pendulous with short caudicles. Follicles usually narrowly fusiform, smooth or transversely ridged. Seeds ovate, with narrow, marginal wing. x = 11 (aneuploids).

Dwarf succulents, tufted, forming compact clumps, rarely slightly rhizomatous. Stems decumbent, obtusely 4(-6)-angled, softly fleshy, smooth, glabrous to the naked eye, tubercles submammose, each bearing a thick, glabrous, subulate, widely spreading, caducous leaf 1.5-10.0 mm long (leaving a whitish scar), subtended by a patch of stipular hairs on either side sometimes extending along margin. Inflorescence glabrous, 1 per stem, arising near base of stem with 1-5 flowers developing in gradual succession on a stout, gradually lengthening peduncle and pedicels (up to 80 mm long), spreading to ascending. Calyx 5-lobed, glabrous or with few marginal cilia. Corolla rotate to campanulate, usually lobed to +/- half of radius or less, 20-100 mm in diameter, with shallow, funnel-shaped depression in centre, outside glabrous, inside glabrous and smooth to slightly rugose or papillate (papillae often with apical cilia), margins usually ciliate. Corona 2-seriate, arising from staminal column, glabrous; outer corona of 5 ascending to spreading, dorsiventrally flattened, simple to bifid or trifid lobes, fused only at base to bases of inner lobes; inner lobes incumbent on anthers, usually much exceeding them and rising up above centre of style head, dorsiventrally flattened at least towards base (often cylindrical above), often with laterally flattened, +/- deltoid dorsal 'fin' in lower half. Staminal column arising near base of corolla tube on short stipe; style head not produced beyond anthers, truncate depressed at apex. Anthers 2-locular, incumbent on top of style head, subquadrate, horizontal, without apical or lateral appendages. Pollinia nearly horizontal, D-shaped, with short caudicles, corpuscle winged, +/- as long as broad. Follicles terete-fusiform, slender, mottled with purple, glabrous, smooth. x = 11.

Perennial twiners. Leaves petiolate, elliptic or ovate-elliplic. Flowers in pedunculate or subsessile, umbel-like cymes which are subaxillary or lateral at nodes. Sepals elliptic, membranous, ciliate. Corolla with inflated base, then constricted into a neck, densely hairy in mouth and throat; lobes longer than tube. Corona of 5 erect, obovate lobes arising from base of staminal column, with a linear process from inner face which is longer than the lobe and projects above style head. Staminal column arising from base of corolla. Anthers 2-locular, with erect, membranous, ovate appendages reaching style apex. Pollinia linear, solitary and erect, with short caudicles. Stylehead pentagonal-ovoid. Follicles smooth. Seeds crowned with a tuft of hairs. x = 11.