Tetradenia

Benth.
Source: 
SSA
Synonym(s): 
Iboza N.E.Br.: 298 (1910).
Description: 
Perennial shrublets or soft shrubs, occasionally reaching the stature of a small tree, usually leafless or nearly so at flowering stage. Stems brittle or semisucculent, at first somewhat quadrangular and softly glandular-pubescent, terete and glabrescent with age. Leaves small or large, those subtending inflorescence branches smaller towards apex of inflorescence, often semisucculent, variously pubescent, crenate-dentate, aromatic. Inflorescences terminal, paniculate, often diffusely branched, ultimate branchlets spike-like (referred to as 'flower-spikes'); bracts small, ovate-deltoid to broadly ovate, imbricate in bud stage, caducous or semipersistent. Flowers small, functionally unisexual or occasionally bisexual, in whorls of 4-10, sessile or shortly pedicellate, dense or lax, mauve or whitish. Calyx minute, campanulate, 3-lobed, divided nearly to base below, upper lobe ovate, lateral lobes oblong, bifid or emarginate often giving calyx a 5-toothed appearance; in female flowers calyx enlarges slightly at maturity and upper lobe becomes erect. Corolla small, tubular or funnel-shaped, limb spreading, asymmetrical, 4-lobed, upper lobe emarginate or bifid so that corolla may appear 5-lobed; lobes oblong, rounded, lowest usually the longest. Stamens 4, free, erect or spreading, 0 in female flowers. Disc 1- or 2-lobed. Ovary present but usually infertile in male flowers; style exserted, deeply bilobed. Nutlets oblong-triquetrous.
Distribution: 
Species 5 or 6, in tropical Africa and Madagascar; 3 in sthn Afr.: N Namibia and Botswana, Northern Province, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, widespread.
Classification: 

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith